Horizon
by Lalaith Quetzalli
Summary: -AU to Nightingale.- All alone in the world, two orphan girls will make each other their home. Sisters in all but blood, their choices will twist the world on its end, and people around them will question how much they really know about the universe. With Purity and Grace, the Sky and the Song will take the Nine Realms by storm! (Can be read as a Stand Alone)
1. Purity and Grace

I don't own any of this, yadda, yadda... except, to a point original characters like Silbhé/Nightingale/Aria and Kendra/Hawkgirl.

To those reading as a Stand Alone, just keep in mind that this story adds some OCs, especially Nightingale, who's the human reincarnation of Loki's elven wife, his match, mother of Helena (Hela) and there's a connection between them. This fic takes a bit from "Secret Warriors" in that Kathryn Adler/Salani never left SHIELD and instead chose to stay with the organization, with Nick; unlike there, Sebastian doesn't die from an overdose of pills, he lives to raise his daughter, until another event changes things. It's better explained in the story itself, but just for those who follow my fics and might find some things familiar, and others not so much.

The song in this chapter is "The Lonely" as sung by Christina Perri.

On with the fic!

* * *

Horizon

(Alternative Universe to _Nightingale_ )

 _By: Lalaith Quetzalli_

 _All alone in the world, two orphan girls will make each other their home. Sisters in all but blood, their choices will twist the world on its end, and people around them will question how much they really know about the universe. With Purity and Grace, the Sky and the Song will take the Nine Realms by storm!_

 **Purity and Grace**

They chose to be together, to be family, and that changed everything.

" _Is the horizon a divide, a separation of two entirely different things, or a point of connection?"_

A young woman in her early twenties, with tanned skin, warm chocolate brown eyes and wavy brown hair with honey highlights to the middle of her back, wearing a maroon button up, short dress and knee-high boots, watched the two children and the middle-aged woman make their way towards the farmhouse in silence, before briefly turning to a side, eyes on the horizon, she couldn't help but think about what a certain someone had told her once.

"I've no idea..." She muttered under her breath.

"Skye..." A male voice behind her called her name.

The young woman, Skye, pulled herself out of her musings, turned around and walked towards the middle-aged man in the blue button up, tie and gray suit. The man who was at least partially responsible for the last few days she'd had… the rather insane last few days: Agent Phil Coulson, of SHIELD…

For the longest time Skye hadn't trusted government agencies… rather the opposite in fact. There was a reason she'd joined the Rising Tide, after all. Her past experiences… they weren't good, and they'd taught her to trust no one… or no one except one person. And certainly not shady government organizations. And she still didn't. Agent Coulson on the other hand… Skye had no idea what it was, exactly, but there was something about him that made her want to trust him. She was willing to take the risk. And yet… it wasn't only her she'd to think about.

"I told him his father was coming home." She said out loud, mostly to cut the heavy silence, and her own heavier thoughts.

"He will." Coulson assured her. "We have some experience with this."

"He almost blew." Skye stated, she still had some trouble getting her head around that part. "We almost died."

Also, there was going to be hell to pay once a certain someone found out about that…

"We have some experience with that, too." Coulson admitted, a bit too blasé even for her.

"Don't have it all mapped out." She insisted, because there was just no way…

"True." He shrugged a bit at that. "We didn't cut off the head of the centipede. Whoever sponsored that little experiment is still out there, among other things."

They got to his car right then, and while she'd already been on it, she couldn't help but stare at it:

"It's a brave new world… and a really old car." She deadpanned.

"Lola can keep up." Coulson assured her as they got in the car. "What about you? Have you thought about the offer?"

"Hitching a ride on the crazy plane?" She snorted, just a little. "Not exactly a team player."

"We're not exactly a team." Not yet, but he had hope. "But we're in a position to do some good. You'd be a great help. And you'd be front row center at the strangest show on Earth, which is, after all, what you wanted."

"I was able to hack SHIELD from my van." Skye reminded him with a cheeky smile. "You gonna show me something new?"

A call came in right then. Agent Grant Ward letting them know they had a new mission, related to something they called an 084… Skye had no idea what that was supposed to be; and according to Coulson, she had until they got to the airfield to decide.

"That's all well and good." She told him after the shock of the flying car passed. "But I gotta go home first."

"Home...?" Coulson certainly wasn't expecting that one.

"You didn't think I actually lived in the back of my van, did you?" She smirked at him.

Truth be told, had it been only her, she probably would have lived in the back of her van, and not thought much about it. But it wasn't only her…

Arrangements were made, take-off delayed, and Coulson changed course to get her home (they, regretfully, had to go back to land for that). Home was a re-purposed warehouse, in one of the poorest neighborhoods in L.A. The kind tourists were sure to avoid. The ground-floor was divided: a laundromat, a tiny diner and a pawn-shop; they shared a back-room which served as an 'under the table' clinic (for the people and the kind of injuries that couldn't be taken to a 'real' hospital), and a place where many 'deals' were made, for medicines, drugs, pot, etc. Skye had sold her hacking abilities a few times there, though only ever for good reasons.

The living area was actually the third floor; the second belonged to the owners of the pawn-shop, and while most believed that might be where they stored things, and perhaps where the owner lived, no one had ever been interested in finding out, not with some of the rumors about said owner that were going around all the time. Also, that same person was the owner of the whole building, so none of the people there were interested in getting on their bad side.

"How long have you lived here?" Coulson asked, intrigued and worried at the same time.

"Two years, since shortly after first arriving to L.A." Skye admitted as she got out of the car, then when seeing Coulson's look she added. "I know how the place looks, and the neighborhood; but trust me. This place is much safer than any off-the-road motel, and even most of the apartments."

It didn't look like the agent actually believed her, but he did not press the point either. Which was enough for the time being. So Skye left him at the car and went inside.

Less than two minutes later Coulson heard shouting coming from the third floor. He couldn't quite make out what was being said, but his reaction was instinctive as he jumped off Lola and rushed in the direction he'd seen Skye go. He found the narrow staircase easy enough and was soon taking them two at a time. The door at the top was half-open, which allowed him to get into the 'apartment'. The place was completely open, except for a door to what he imagined must be the bathroom, and what looked like a balcony/terrace full of greenery. There were no walls, only some thin, old-looking curtains, and very little furniture.

He found Skye standing by the door to the balcony/terrace and she was the one talking right then, seemingly trying to placate someone he couldn't quite see:

"I am alright, I promise you..." The brunette was saying. "Nothing happened to me..." There was a pause and then she added. "Yeah, but they're just some bruises, they'll be gone in a few days… or sooner, yeah, I know… You know I'd never put myself in danger unless I thought there was no other choice… I'd never leave you…"

When Coulson finally got close enough to see who she was talking to, he froze in shock.

There was a second young woman, sitting on the floor among the greenery on the balcony/terrace and as he could see, it wasn't just greenery, they were flowers. Roses to be more precise. The girl looked younger than Skye, in all but the eyes, a hazel color, they looked older than the other young woman's. She was small, with light creamy skin, thick curls of dark-auburn hair to her shoulder-blades, that shone red where the sun hit it just right; she was wearing a simple long denim skirt and off-the-shoulder, pale lavender peasant blouse.

The girl seemed to become aware of his presence right then, for her eyes turned to him, to the hand hovering above his gun. Then she turned back to Skye, eyes flashing.

"You can trust him!" Skye cried out immediately. "Yes, I know we said we'd never trust a shady government organization, and I don't. But he's good I promise… You know I'd never bring someone around if I thought they weren't safe. I'd never put you in risk like that… sister..."

It took several seconds for Coulson to process the fact that the woman sitting on her ankles hadn't said a single word all along, and yet her hands… she was signing. And whatever she was 'saying' was what made Skye say what she did, in turn. That realization took him enough by surprise several seconds passed before he realized what had just been said:

"Sister?!" He couldn't hide his surprise at that.

"Yeah." Skye smiled as she turned towards him. "Meet my sister, Aria. Aria, this is Agent Coulson. Yes, he's with SHIELD, but I promise you, he won't hurt you, he won't hurt us."

"Of course I won't!" Coulson stated immediately.

He'd no idea what exactly made such assurances necessary, and he didn't like it.

"I am Agent Phil Coulson, I am with SHIELD, and I promise I'm not here to hurt you, or your sister, Miss Aria." He assured her, pulling away from his gun and offering his hand to her.

There was a second or two of hesitation, but eventually Aria nodded and shook Coulson's hand, before letting go and signing something.

"She believes you, but she doesn't trust you." Skye translated.

"That's only fair." Coulson nodded, looking straight at the hazel-eyed girl. "I hope you'll allow me the chance to earn your trust?"

Another pause, but finally Aria just nodded.

"So, what do you say Agent Coulson?" Skye asked then. "Are you still willing to take us on? I'm afraid we're a package deal. Where one goes, we both go."

"I see..." He actually took a moment to think it over before asking. "Where was she, when we found you in your van? If you don't mind my asking."

"Aria is a freelance translator, and very good at it." Skye said proudly. "She was asked to consult by some professor in San Francisco, left early the same morning we met. She was supposed to stay away until the end of the week, but apparently she was done early and decided to come back and give me a surprise..."

"Only to not find you." Coulson finished for her, guessing the rest.

"Yeah… she didn't take it well." Skye cringed a bit at the memory of Aria's reaction. "Especially when she found out what happened in Union Station."

The agent nodded in understanding. While they'd made sure to eliminate anything 'super' related from the media, it was impossible to hide that something had happened. Coulson could only imagine how Aria must have felt, finding out that her sister had been there when the 'attack' happened. Whether she knew the whole story or not, it must not have been easy to hear.

"So, a translator then?" He asked, considering their options.

"Oh, my sister's a real genius." Skye said proudly. "Anything she gets her hands on, and her mind onto, she learns. Languages is but one area, she also knows a lot about literature, history, mythology… nothing official, of course. Neither of us ever actually went to college… or even to high-school. But we are good at what we do. Me with computers and she… with a bunch of other stuff, really. If you think I could be of help to you, you've no idea how much she could do..."

Skye broke off then, as Aria placed a hand on her hip, to stop her babbling, causing the brunette to smile sheepishly.

Coulson just knew that the team, especially May, were going to have a cow over the whole thing. They already thought he was crazy, offering Skye a place, the addition of another unknown was not going to go over well. And yet like with Skye, he couldn't help but feel it was right. Those girls belonged in the team, they needed them both…

 **xXx**

The team wasn't exactly eager about adding the two sisters to the team, particularly since they knew nothing about Aria. Then there was also the fact that even with all of SHIELD's resources they'd been unable to find anything on either of them, though that seemed to make Coulson more eager to keep them around, instead of less.

In the end they decided to take them on a sort-of trial basis. A policy of wait-and-see. Of course, when that deal was struck none of them quite expected the mess their next mission would turn into. It was supposed to be fairly simple. They were flying to Peru to check on a recently discovered artifact; if it proved to be an 084, as suspected, they'd bag it, tag it and deliver it to a secret base to be dealt with. What they weren't quite counting on was the Peruvian Commander of the Military Police and her subordinates wanting the artifact, the weapon, for themselves.

No one failed to notice how calm the two sisters remained through the whole situation, never hesitating, never flinching; or the fact that Aria was the first to slip her cuffs and set about freeing the others (and unlike May, she did not dislocate anything, she just was that flexible).

No one ever brought up the fact that Aria did not speak, other than when Skye pointed out that she could hear just fine. Still, eventually everyone showed interest in learning at least basic hand-sign language in order to understand her, and on Agent Ward's initiative, they also taught the sisters some signs traditionally used by agents and the military in special ops.

Ever so slowly the sisters began opening up some. They explained there were orphans, they'd never had anyone but each other, no family ever wanted either of them, but that was alright, as long as they were together, they could handle anything. Their only possessions were a set of wide metallic armbands they each wore and pair of necklaces: Skye's a double necklace, gold, one line held two plaques with Chinese symbols, a version of Chinese that was no longer spoken, and the other holding a round mantra pendant with the OM (the sound that unifies the universe) symbol; Aria's was completely different, simpler in many ways, the material looked like silver, though it was much less fragile, a simple, delicate-looking chain, holding a pendant of a bird with its wings wide open, the back was engraved with a symbol that looked like a double-infinite.

Coulson knew the sisters were still hiding things from him, starting with why exactly he could find nothing about them, anywhere. At the same time, he didn't believe them to be bad people, or a danger to his team, so he didn't pressure them; he offered his trust, and waited for them to trust him in return. He knew it wouldn't be easy, even with what little they'd said about their time in the foster-system, it was obvious they had serious trust issues, to the point where they trusted no one but each other. It actually reminded Phil of his old team: Strike Team Delta…

He regretted so much how he'd left them, allowing them to believe he was dead, and no matter how much he might want to be honest, it wasn't to be so, not while Centipede and whoever was behind it, was still out there. They'd tried to kill him once, had almost succeeded even, would have if it hadn't been for Darcy…

Darcy Lewis, from the moment he first met her he knew she was special. Even though most of those in SHIELD saw nothing more than a very hot girl in her early twenties who talked way too much and seemed pathologically unable to take things seriously, he couldn't help but notice other things. Like the fact that she'd come face to face with 'gods' and monsters and she had barely batted an eyelash, she'd had 'men in black' bursting into her place of work, her home and take away her stuff and she never backed down, she didn't allow any of them to intimidate her. She was more than just brave, she was fearless. Coulson admired that.

Making her his assistant was a spur of the moment. Her internship had ended, and SHIELD had assigned others to help Dr. Foster. Technically, after having her sign all the NDAs, they could have let her go, she was just a college graduate, a Political Science major, nothing they hadn't seen before… and yet Coulson couldn't let her go. He'd no idea what, but something made him want to keep her close; and she must have felt the same, for when he offered her the job as his assistant, she said yes.

Romance came out of left field for them both, there had been Audrey, and he'd briefly believed her to be the one. Until he realized that he was beginning to see his dinners with her, his visits to her as obligations, as tasks to fulfill, points in his agenda… Darcy never said a word about it, she just kept working for him, taking food to his office and staying until she was sure he'd eaten it whenever he stayed too late. At some point Coulson began doing the same.

The progression of their relationship wasn't exactly easy, but it was effortless, natural, like there was no other way things could go. And it wasn't just the personal side; eventually she became more than just his assistant, she also became his partner.

Things had given a turn for the insane late in 2013. The two weren't supposed to be together that day. The mission was off-the-book, and Coulson was supposed to handle it alone, but Darcy had joined in the last minute, muttering something about a 'feeling' and not wanting him to go alone. It wasn't the first time she changed things in the last minute, so he didn't think much on it.

Two days later, Phil found himself crowded against the back-end of a yacht, at gun-point. He was sure he was about to die, either the bullet or the fall into the Mediterranean would kill him, but in the last second she was there. The shot echoed around them, but he felt no pain, and then they hit the water. For several seconds Phil actually thought Darcy might have taken the bullet meant for him, was terrified at the idea of her dying for him, and then they were breaking out of the ocean surface, gasping, keeping afloat with some effort, and there was no blood on the water. The bullet had missed them… miraculously.

As Coulson later discovered, it didn't actually miss them… it went through them. Because Darcy was a gifted, mutant. Wallflower, her peers had called her, because her ability apparently allowed her to go unnoticed… except, as she'd later discovered, it did more than that, she literally stepped into a different dimension, and could even move between shadows with some effort. She'd used that on the yacht, had pulled them both into another dimension for a fraction of a second, just enough for the bullet to go right through where they'd been, with no one else noticing a thing. Then she'd made them fall, and left everyone in that yacht believing them dead.

Nick Fury had taken advantage of the unexpected developments, because he could never do anything else. It was how Phil had ended leading a mixed-up team that did not actually exist in any records. Darcy for her part was turned into a top-secret operative, Agent Shadow, she was known as, she had no papers, no civilian name and only answered to Fury. As far as the world knew, Darcy Lewis was dead, and staying that way. For the most part Shadow spent her days following people around and reporting back to Nick, she also had a special mission, find the one responsible for the death of Agent Kathryn Adler, the Sphinx. The former Deputy Director had been Fury's partner until a meeting in Malta with a number of world leaders, a meeting that had been invaded by mercenaries, who'd then proceeded to kill more than half of those present. Adler had tried to fight them, and had died in the process.

In fact, Phil and Darcy had been following a lead when the mess in that yacht had happened. Which left him following leads on the field, while leading a mix-matched team on whatever mission was considered necessary; while Shadow made a name for herself while keeping an eye on any suspicious activity (both physically and virtually… she was TaserQueen, the Queen of Hackers, after all).

Coulson never expected to meet the twins (as the team had taken to calling the sisters, since they seemed to have no surname). Skye reminded him of a younger Darcy, a young woman hiding her fragile heart behind a wall of humor and bravado; and then there was Aria, it was amazing how the girl could manage to communicate so much without saying a single word. The two were so over-protective of each other, it was touching.

It was May's idea for the twins to become probationary agents. She knew they both practiced Yoga together in the afternoons, before some long meditative sessions; and they'd joined May in her Tai-Chi every morning. Melinda May and Grant Ward took the task of being their SOs together. It was unorthodox, but then again, what was normal in their team? Aria was five inches or so shorter than Skye, her body less muscled and more fragile-looking, yet she was fast, flexible and her reflexes were a fraction of a second faster than her sister's; Skye was stronger, a slight bit faster and had more reach. Also, as everyone soon noticed, Skye was more the kind to fight close and dirty, while Aria preferred to dodge as long as possible, taking the first opening available to down or incapacitate an opponent.

The girls were doing well for beginners, or so May and Ward kept insisting. Then their next mission happened, and things got interesting in ways none of them could have expected…

Dr. Franklin Hall had been kidnapped, and the team was sent to rescue him. It took a while, but eventually they managed to track him down to a man called Ian Quinn, and his property in Malta (and Coulson couldn't help the shiver of dread, as Quinn had been the owner of that yacht where Darcy and he almost died… though back then he'd been a 'person of interest' a possible contact of those he was tracking, rather than the direct suspect). It'd taken very little time for Skye to hack herself an invitation into an event Quinn was having that very day (they couldn't go as SHIELD, as they were illegal in that country). Aria pouted a bit at not being able to join her sister, but even she understood it wasn't a good idea.

Truth was that, while both were training to be agents, Aria simply didn't have the instincts for it the way Skye did. When it came to protect Aria was willing to do anything, as became obvious from the very first time May and Ward thought to have a double-spar against them. But when it came to herself, Aria had very little interest in fighting. She was a protector, but not an attacker.

Things didn't exactly go without a hitch, but in the end Skye'd managed to bluff her way through and then Coulson and Ward had their in. Quinn discovered her, but Skye was ready to act and had managed to disarm him (using a technique Ward had taught her that very morning); she wasn't yet ready to actually shoot a gun though, so in the end she chose to run.

There were further difficulties when it came to Dr. Hall, and while Coulson had managed to secure the Gravitonium, he lost the doctor in the process. Once things were alright on that front, Ward decided to go looking for Skye, and it was when he reached her that he got the real surprise as he found her drenched, the pink dress sticking to her like a second skin, barefoot, and at least a dozen guards and mercenaries unconscious around her, she'd taken them down on her own, with no weapons at all.

"What the hell?!" Ward could hardly believe what he was seeing.

They didn't have time to discuss it then, but the moment they were on the bus, safe (on their way to yet another secret SHIELD base to hand over the gravitonium for safe-keeping), Coulson ordered them all to the Command Center.

"I thought you didn't know how to fight." He stated, staring straight at Skye.

"I..." The brunette made a pause and took a deep breath before answering. "Well… you never actually asked..."

"Skye!" May snapped, she didn't like not knowing things.

"I was taught, we both were, when we were thirteen." Skye explained quietly. "I… we didn't like it. The people who taught us… they weren't good people, their methods… lets say they were nothing like yours. They didn't like it when Aria refused to fight, to attack, and I became as good as I could just to make sure they wouldn't hurt her, I… it's not something I'm proud of."

"But it's something that could save your life one day, that might have done exactly that today." Coulson told her kindly.

"If you're to be rookie agents, this is exactly the kind of thing we need to know." May pointed out. "It's one thing for you not to want to talk about your childhoods… but this we do need to know. Understand…?"

"I… yes." Skye swallowed. "It's not easy..."

"I never thought it would be." May shrugged.

They all knew that wasn't the last secret, not by a long shot, but no one pressed the twins any further, hoping they'd learn to trust.

 **xXx**

Some things were revealed in the following days, like the fact that Skye was very good at Tae-Kwan Do, and knew the basics of karate and another martial art she couldn't remember the name of. Aria knew the basics of karate, but her real talent laid in jujitsu, the martial art suited her perfectly. None of the Agents knew exactly where the girls had learned to fight, who'd taught them, or even why exactly, though May and Coulson had begun to suspect that there was more behind it all than an unkind (or even abusive) foster family.

And then a member of the Index went missing, and the agent on site (in Hong Kong) had connected it to the Rising Tide… It was automatic, all eyes turned to Skye; yet before she had the chance to either complain or defend herself, Aria slammed both hands on the holo-table, calling all attention onto her before she began signaling rather forcefully.

By that point everyone knew at least enough hand-signing that none of them needed translation, they understood enough of what Aria was 'saying':

+Dare not look at my sister like that!+ They could almost hear the exclamation points too. +She is loyal to this team, if not to SHIELD, and she would never do something that would put a life in danger. What she did with Mike was in an attempt to keep him safe, he could not be disappeared if the world knew about him. She is not responsible for what is happening here and you better stop even contemplating it!+

No one dare even deny that the thought crossed their minds, Skye didn't say a word, she just smiled briefly at her sister before typing frenetically on her laptop, eventually pulling up a name:

"Miles Lydon." Skye announced, dropping the information into the holo-table, for everyone to see. "That's the guy you're looking for."

No one missed the rather vicious way Aria waved her hand; it wasn't a sign that meant anything in particular, but still.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Fitz asked, not quite getting it.

"You know him, don't you?" Coulson guessed.

"We've met." Skye nodded. "Years ago, before we ever came to L.A. Miles is Rising Tide, you could say he was the one who discovered me, introduced me to them. Then he expected me to pay back the 'favor'."

Again, a violent sign, and that time they could almost sense the tension in Aria.

"Did he…?" Simmons didn't dare finish the question.

"He never hurt me." Skye assured them immediately. "Miles… he fancied himself in love with me, and he believed that helping me get into the Rising Tide somehow put me in his debt, and that I'd be willing to sleep with him. He was mistaken, of course, I'm not in the habit of whoring myself! He became rather insistent, and on one particular occasion when he 'insisted' a bit too much, Aria showed him out..." No one could fail to notice that was a euphemism for something less polite. "He took offense, pushed her away; I got angry and punched him in the face. The next morning half the people we knew were calling me a slut, who slept with any man that crossed my path, the other half called me a vicious bitch who hit him when I tried to get into his pants and he rejected me."

"What?!" Everyone reacted angrily to that.

"It's alright, it's not like any of those people were my friends." Skye assured them. "I made him pay for that, and then Aria and I got into our van and left Texas."

"You made him pay?" May was curious about that.

"He's a hacker, lets say he'd used a few tricks to make life easier for himself, particularly where it came to fines, parking tickets, and even taxes." Skye shrugged. "I simply undid all that. From what I know the debt he had was quite high."

Ward snorted and FitzSimmons actually laughed at that, Coulson shook his head, though he didn't actually say anything negatively about Skye's choice of actions, and even May allowed a small smile onto his face. Yeah, Skye definitely knew how to get back at the bastard…

+So, how are we going to handle this?+ Aria's signaling pulled them all back to the present.

It was quite easy, actually. Lydon was still living in the same apartment he'd when the sisters had last seen him, so they simply guided the team there and they waited until he arrived. The man didn't even know what was going on until it was much too late to do anything about it. By the time he even began to understand he was in trouble Skye was already doing her best to hack through his own laptop, while Aria worked on another computer, cross-referencing anything suspicious Skye might find.

In the end they found what they were looking for, and a hell of a lot more. Lydon had been doing a lot of 'dark hat' hacking. Skye was livid, she believed in the freedom of information, in the basis of the Rising Tide; even if at the same time she'd begun to understand that some things were meant to remain secret… and to see someone who claimed to be such a believer, twist those statements like Lydon did… and all the people being hurt by his actions!

At least they managed to save Chan Ho Yin… and Skye had made sure to arrange everything else she'd found in a way that other teams in SHIELD could use the information. She made Lydon's 'betrayal' of the Rising Tide's manifesto public, so even if they couldn't imprison him, no one would want him around again. He became persona non-grata to all hackers in the world (also, Coulson put a bracelet on him so he could no longer hack), and he really had nothing else.

"Bitch!" Lydon screeched as he was being 'escorted' off the Bus. "Freaking bitches the both of you! You've ruined my life! What right have you?! You freaks! You don't even exist!"

Not a word was said, though Ward couldn't help but notice the way Skye's expression went dark, or how her hands seemed to almost vibrate with her fury, something that was especially obvious in the way her armbands shook against her wrists. Beside her Aria wasn't shaking, she was completely immobile, and there was an emptiness in her hazel eyes that somehow disturbed the Specialist more than the shadows in Skye's.

No one said a word until the (former) hacker was out of the Bus, not even while preparations were made and they went airborne again. And then, as if by some silent accord, they all gathered in the sitting room. The sisters sitting side by side, holding hands, their armbands touching and sort-of vibrating together, creating a soft whistle-like noise that the others could only half hear. It was a rather odd situation all told. No one pressured them, the two scientists and the three agents just watched them in silence, waiting. Eventually Aria looked into her sister's eyes, there were no signs, though she mouthed one word: _Trust…_

Skye nodded, took a deep breath, then let go of her sister. The surprise came when she pulled out her phone, entering some sort of command on it, and all the lights in the Bus flashed for a moment before going back to normal.

"What did you just do?" May asked, tense.

"I… we may be willing to trust you, but we do not trust SHIELD." Skye stated in a very serious tone. "I just activated an algorithm that blocked the live-feed from every single camera and bug on this plane. They'll register pre-recorded stuff until I deactivate it again."

"Why do that?" Coulson asked.

"How can you even do that?" Simmons asked at the same time.

"Like I said, we trust you, we might be willing to share things from our past with you, but we do not trust SHIELD." Skye insisted. "As for how I could do it… I'm a hacker, remember? I know most of you see it as little more than party tricks, getting into a camera, accessing classified information… but I'd like to remind you that I effectively erased Mike Peterson from existence. There was nothing left to show he ever existed: no drivers license registered anywhere, no social security, not even a birth-certificate. Nothing. And it's not the first time I've done that..."

"That's why we can't find anything on either of you." Coulson realized. "You erased yourselves."

"I did, yes." The hacker nodded. "The web knows me as BlueCloud, I'm..."

"The second best hacker in the world." Phil finished for her, marveled.

"Yeah..." The young brunette wasn't expecting that. "How do you know that?"

"I know IronSmith, and TaserQueen..." AC, as Skye called him, revealed proudly.

"You know the Queen of Hackers?!" BlueCloud cried out in shock and awe.

"As amazing as I'm sure that is for you Skye, can we get back to the point of this conversation?" Ward asked, tense.

"Yes, of course." Skye took a deep breath, preparing herself for what she was about to say. "I suppose, in order for you to understand, I should start at the beginning. Aria and I met when we were six years old… no, we're not sisters by blood, but by choice, and to us that's much more important. I was left in St. Agnes when I was a baby, ten months old or so, the nuns estimated, they gave me the name of Mary Sue Poots, since I had none, not even any birth-records. I was moved around a lot, between foster families and group homes, never stayed any place for more than two or three months… no one ever wanted me to stay. Then, the summer when I was six I met Aria. The same age as me, she arrived there right from the hospital, from what we know her dad died and she'd no one else. There was apparently something off about her father's death, though, so the nuns gave her a new name. And no, we don't know what her original name was, Aria hit her head at some point, and the name isn't in any records I've found." She shook her head. "Anyway, they gave her the name of Mary Anne. One of them also had the idea of making her my sister, because from the day she arrived we became very close, we did everything together and went everywhere together. So we became the Poots sisters. We were even fostered together, and soon people seemed to forget that there had been a time when there hadn't been two of us. Didn't change the fact that nobody wanted me, nobody wanted us, but at least we were together, when we had nobody and nothing else we at least had each other, and that was enough."

For several seconds no one said a word, and then it was Simmons who spoke:

"I… I am very sorry, that you two went through all that." She murmured, as kindly as ever. "But what has that to do with anything? With not trusting SHIELD?"

"Oh! But that's just the beginning!" Skye called with fake cheeriness. "As for what it has to do with SHIELD… it's SHIELD's fault that we've gone through all we did!"

"What…?!" No one was expecting that.

"Well, the people who left us at St. Agnes, they were with SHIELD." Skye explained, succinctly.

The hacker turned slightly to a side, to her laptop, and entered a command, then the screen of the TV lit up, showing two documents with SHIELD logos, both of them redacted.

"Lydon got that for us a few years back." Skye explained. "Our admittance forms into St. Agnes. And yet… that wasn't the first time we heard of SHIELD. No, the first time was when we were thirteen, when we were taken from our group-home… though I suppose, you might also say we were 'given away'."

"What…?!" Again, there was the shock.

"According to the person who received us, we were the children no one wanted, the ones no one would miss." Skye went on, grasping her sister's hand tightly to balance herself. "There was about a dozen of us, total, five girls and six or seven boys. Most of them died in the first month. By the sixth month there was just the two of us, an older girl and a boy left."

"What the hell did they do to you?!" Fitz cried out in disbelief.

"They wanted soldiers, I think." Skye shrugged.

"They taught you to fight." Ward realized. "That's why you are so good at such different martial arts… and the way you handle a gun..."

"Yeah." Skye nodded. "Aria wasn't as good. They threatened to kill her if she didn't improve… until they realized that they could use her to 'motivate' me. I learned things as fast as I could, became as good as I could, in order to keep my sister safe." She swallowed a sob, smiling briefly at the hazel-eyed girl. "Not that they cared much bout that, they'd already decided to sacrifice us all anyway."

Again, the shock came.

"This was three months in." The hacker went on. "There were still seven of us left. And then they used us for their crazy experiments… that was when the numbers came down to four. Things became quite insane then… JT was the eldest of the group, he… I guess you could say he blew up. He tried to escape and when that failed he used everything he'd been taught to kill as many of the people in that base as he could. They knocked him out eventually. It was pretty bad, though. The rest of us were ordered back to our bunks and then Raina began to screech that they were going to kill us all, to sacrifice us, we'd become too dangerous, too wild for them. I didn't sleep that night, neither of us did." Skye swallowed. "We were allowed to share a room, as our captors had learned that I was more willing to do as told if I was allowed to have time with my sister. Then, shortly before dawn the door opened. I had been gearing myself to go down fighting, and yet instead of that I found some guy in tactical clothes, telling us we had to run if we wanted to live..." She breathed deeply. "I don't know he was, I'll never know. But he saved us, he got us out of that base, and to the road, even told us which way to run. I've no idea what happened to him once the bullets began flying. The moment we began running we didn't stop, and we didn't look back, until we got to the closest town. Then we kept moving. We eventually discovered we'd been a year in that hellhole… It took three years for us to feel safe enough to stay more than a couple of months anywhere. The names Skye and Aria, we took them then. We couldn't go back to being Sue and Anne, not just because we didn't feel like those girls anymore… those names never felt right, not really. It also wasn't safe." She shook her head. "I learned everything I could about hacking, and once I felt confident enough about it, I looked up everything I could about us, saved a copy, and then deleted our names. As far as the world is concerned Mary Sue and Mary Anne Poots never existed."

Neither did Skye and Aria, but that wasn't the point at the moment.

For a few seconds it looked like it might be over, until Aria signaled something that only Skye truly paid attention to, she nodded.

"That's where Aria lost her voice." The brunette sister added quietly. "I don't know what you might have thought before, but she wasn't born a mute. She actually has a beautiful voice… or she did, until then. The things they did to us… they hurt her, so much that even when we were finally healed, she didn't speak. Thankfully we already knew ASL by then, though it's been hard, I miss my sister's voice… miss listening to her tell me stories in the night, hearing her sing..."

"I… that's so awful!" Simmons cried out, distressed.

She immediately offered to run some tests, try and find out if the lack of voice was caused by something physical or mental; but they refused, neither of them had the slightest interest in being studied or prodded ever again. Simmons hated not being able to help, but in the end she understood their reticence and did not insist. Something both Skye and Aria were infinitely thankful for.

"What I don't understand is, what does any of that have to do with SHIELD?" Coulson asked, curious. "You said you heard about SHIELD then…"

"The Kraken… that's what most people called the man in charge of the place, to avoid names, while they gave us all numbers… the day we arrived he told us we were fortunate, that we'd be taught, sharpened into swords, which would then serve as the weapons hidden behind the shield." Skye explained evenly. "At first I thought it was just a speech. Something stupid, meant to sound so eloquent… and then I discovered SHIELD."

It was obvious didn't want to believe, that SHIELD had anything to do with what was done to the girls, and yet none of them dare voice their disbelief. Not after everything the twins had already dared reveal to them. Instead Coulson promised to investigate this Kraken and children being taken from orphanages…

"AC..." Skye called to him as he was living the sitting room.

"Yes…?" He asked her.

"Be careful." The brunette told him softly. "Whoever is behind that mess… they will not hesitate to kill you, to kill us all, if they so much as suspect that you're on their track, that the two of us are even alive..."

"I know." Coulson nodded. "I'll be careful." He turned fully to face the sisters again. "As long as you're a part of this team you'll be safe, Skye, Aria… we'll keep you safe. I promise you."

The sisters nodded once, sharply. How could they do anything but believe him?

They were all so focused in that intense little exchange… none of them noticed the mix of shock, disbelief, wonder and horror shadowing whiskey colored eyes as a certain someone looked at them, especially at Skye…

 **xXx**

Time passed, life went on, missions came and went. There was a particularly stressful one, where the team flew to Pennsylvania to investigate the mysterious death of a volunteer fire-fighter (whom the team actually found suspended in mid-air). It was a most stressful investigation, especially when another man died before they managed to track the origin of the 'virus' killing them. Skye went where Coulson ordered to, while Aria chose to hung around with FitzSimmons, researching everything she could think of.

At some point she sensed something off with Simmons, thought it was easy enough to intervene. Skye, who was in the next room, reacted to the change in Aria's energy and looked up. The response was a simple one-handed sign… one that wasn't ASL, it didn't put Skye at ease, just worried her all the more. She said not a word though, she knew there would be no point.

They eventually found the origin of the virus, in the form of a Chitauri helmet, sadly they also found another man who'd been infected (the third) and whose death was imminent. Then, as if that weren't stressful enough, they discovered there was a chance Simmons might have become infected with the same virus…

Thankfully that last possibility proved to be wrong. Coulson insisted on running any and all tests they could think of, and all came out just fine. Simmons was perfectly healthy.

"See, nothing to worry about." Ward told Skye, doing his best to conceal his own relief.

"I wasn't worried." Skye answered calmly.

Ward thought she was trying to appear tough, emotionless; he'd no idea that Skye really had never been worried, not about Simmons at least. She'd known she'd be alright… her sister made sure of that, after all…

The visit to the Hub wasn't exactly a fun time for the twins. Even though Coulson and May had done their best to investigate what Skye had told them about their past and they hadn't been able to find anything about SHIELD training orphans, or even about children being taken from St. Agnes (that one they hadn't put much hope in, Skye had warned them they would find no records of their old identities, after all); they'd tried searching for a Raina, or a JT, nothing either. There was no proof of anything (though Coulson at least trusted the sisters enough to believe their story), but the girls still didn't feel at ease being inside one of SHIELD's top-secret bases. They'd been in others, true, but always just quick visits to drop or pick up stuff, or re-fuel; never a visit that lasted more than a few hours. Learning that Fitz and Ward were being sent on their own on a classified mission, which none of the others had the clearance to even know about (not even May and Coulson!) did not make things any better.

It took all of one hour for Skye to decide she was done playing nice. Even if no one around was willing to answer her questions, to even listen to her fears, she wasn't going to sit back quietly, and Aria agreed with her. It didn't take much effort for the two to find their way into a room with a computer, and then it was simply a matter of Skye hacking into the databases.

For all of one second the brunette hacker actually considered taking the opportunity to look up the original files about her and about her sister, the way she'd always wanted to. She knew she didn't have long, and the temptation was strong. Then she remembered Ward and Fitz, and how good they both were, and she made herself focused in what really mattered. St. Agnes, her birth-parents… that was her past, the team was her present, her future, and she would protect it, protect them, with everything she had. They both would.

Coulson didn't like it when he discovered what they were doing, Skye in particular. And when he tried to chastise her about it Aria got in the argument; for a moment it actually looked like she might about to open her mouth and begin ranting at Coulson… except that wasn't possible, because she couldn't speak! In the end she signed, and that was enough:

+Family means nobody gets left behind...+

"Ah..." Coulson blinked in disbelief. "Did you just quote Lilo & Stitch at me?"

Skye laughed at the insanity of the whole matter.

Coulson wanted to face Hand with their discovery, but in the end the sisters convinced him it was pointless, she'd either lie or give him useless excuses and platitudes, they needed to get to their guys. Jemma and Melinda met them on the Bus, which was almost ready to go, apparently they'd been expecting something to happen…

The flight to South Ossetia was full of tension and anticipation. Melinda had her full focus on the controls; she knew the attack on the facility would start the moment Fitz and Ward finished their mission, and the people there would respond. They'd have a very small window to get the guys out before it all went to hell.

Jemma had the first-aid kit ready, Aria stood at her side, ready too, while Coulson and Skye stood by the opening ramp. He'd just thrown a line for the boys to climb when they all saw the gunmen pointing straight at the Bus. The plane was heavily armored, but that would do nothing for Fitz and Simmons if a bullet caught them mid-climb.

For a couple of seconds no one seemed to know what to say, and then Skye looked over her shoulder at her sister, she made a single one-handed sign, one Jemma did not understand, though Aria did, the auburn-haired nodded in agreement.

"AC?" Skye called to the man beside her. "I'm gonna need you to step back and trust me."

"What?" He wasn't expecting that.

The brunette said nothing more, just looked at him in silent plea.

"I trust you Skye." He nodded, and did as asked.

The smile that came from the brunette was blinding. Then shock took over the delight when he saw Skye give a step forward herself, so she was standing on the very edge of the ramp, she raised her arms, flicked her wrists and appeared to press onto empty air with open palms.

For several seconds Phil had no idea what was supposed to be happening, and then he saw it: the gunmen were shooting, but their bullets were stopping before hitting the boys, or the Bus, before getting anywhere close to either. It was as if some kind of invisible force were blocking them. His eyes turned to Skye as understanding began coloring his thoughts. She faltered for a second, and he understood it wasn't over just yet.

"Climb now!" He yelled at the two men.

Neither Fitz nor Ward questioned his order, they just did as told. Fitz looked oddly at Skye as she stood, almost trembling, a look of absolute concentration on her face and her arms almost shaking with some incomprehensible effort.

Ward's stare was less obvious, though there was something in his eyes, a realization and a level of horror that no one quite saw, yet if they had, would have put up red flags right away.

The moment the ramp began closing up Skye lowered her arms, her legs folding beneath her so abruptly she would have hit the ground in a heap if Phil hadn't been there to catch her.

"AC…?" She murmured, exhausted.

"Well done Skye." He congratulated her. "Thank you."

He still had no idea what she'd done exactly, or how she'd done it… but that would come later. In that moment it was enough to feel thankful that they'd all made it out alright. The time for explanations would come, once they were well away from South Ossetia… and from the Hub. Once he was sure they, his team, his family, were safe.

The moment they left the cargo bay Aria was waiting for her sister with an energy bar and a protein shake. The brunette took them, but didn't let go of her sister until she showed another of each for herself.

They were all silent as they followed the sisters to the sitting room, where they curled into each other, eating their bars and drinking their shakes…

"Are we gonna talk about what just happened or just ignore it?" Fitz finally blurted out.

Aria signed at Skye, nodding at the same time.

"What does that mean?" May asked unexpectedly. "It's not ASL."

"No, it's not, it's something else." Skye agreed, though she didn't clarify what exactly it was. "It basically means 'trust'. Though the context can change, it can be 'I trust', 'you should trust', 'we...' you get the drift. Right now it means a little of all of them. It means my sister trusts you with our biggest secret, and she thinks I should, that we both can..."

"You're gifted." Simmons said, it wasn't a question. "You did something to stop those bullets, I know not what."

"In simple terms, I created a shield out of thin air and stopped them." Skye answered, dead honest. "The more complex explanation is that I vibrated the air at high enough a frequency to make a near-impenetrable barrier out of it, and that's what blocked the bullets. Then, in the last second I sent it out, like a wave, throwing back the gunmen so they wouldn't be able to rush us."

"You vibrated the air?" Fitz repeated, intrigued.

"It's what I can do." Skye nodded calmly. "You see, everything in the world vibrates, the air, the water, the trees, the people… even the rocks and the earth itself. I can tap into those vibrations, most of the time it's just like a buzzing in my ear, I hear them, but do nothing about them. However, when I focus I can touch them, and alter them."

She turned her eyes to a couple of water glasses someone had left on the table, focused her whole attention on them; they all heard it then, the low whistle, as if someone were making the glasses sing with a wet finger. It lasted several seconds before one of the glasses cracked.

"I'm sorry." The brunette apologizes sheepishly. "My control is a bit shot right now. I hadn't used my powers to the extent I did back there in… a very long time, really."

"How long have you been gifted?" May asked, suspicious.

"Since I was thirteen and a half..." The hacker answered, knowing what the woman was implying. "Yes… it happened while I… while we were with the Kraken."

Silence was absolute and Skye had trouble stopping herself from vibrating in place, until her sister entwined their hands together, the touch allowing the brunette to calm like nothing else had ever been able to.

"The experiments… at first they were sort-of normal, the kind of thing you expect if you've watched any horror films." Skye deadpanned. "But then… I don't know if they got bored that nothing was happening, or if it was that they hadn't found it before..."

"It?" FitzSimmons asked in unison.

"A blue crystal with silver veins… we later learned it's called a terrigen crystal." Skye elaborated. "They pushed us all into a windowless room and then broke the crystal with us inside. They just dropped it from a hatch on the ceiling, closing it right away. The crystal broke there was a dark mist and then… it was like rock enveloping us like…" Aria signed and Skye nodded. "Like a cocoon, exactly. Only, not all of us reacted the same to it. Four… they screamed, like there was something in the cocoon that hurt them… I watched them turn into statues before falling into dust. It terrified me, so I turned to look at my sister. I saw her form being covered by the cocoon, but it was much slower than with anyone else, as if something were trying to keep it back, and her skin kept glowing… Eventually a cocoon finished covering me and I could see no more." She shook her head, visibly fighting to push the pain of the memory away. "When we woke up… it was a whole new world."

"You're gifted too." Melinda realized, eyes straight on Aria.

Aria smiled at her, but didn't give any kind of response otherwise.

"I don't think the scientists expected Aria to survive the breaking of that crystal." Skye admitted quietly. "They thought she would crumble, like so many of the others. Then my powers… I almost collapsed the facility on our heads when I first used them. Before, they'd used my sister to control me, they'd threaten her, hurt her even… after I changed they could no longer do that. My power is tied to my emotions, and soon they discovered that even the suggestion of hurting Aria made me lose control. So on that sense, things were better, they didn't dare hurt her, or even keep her away from me; and as long as they did that, I was willing to allow them to study me, my gift. It was not the best, but still not as bad as it had been during the first few months."

"So you can make things shake… vibrate, whichever." Fitz decided, then turned to Aria. "What can you do?"

Aria tilted her head to a side, and yet said nothing.

"It took us a while to discover it, it wasn't as obvious as mine." Skye explained. "I'm sure you all remember I told she could still talk back then. She'd tell me stories every night to help me sleep, she hummed every so often and sometimes, if she was in the mood, she'd sing… She began doing it more often after the crystal, as her songs calmed me like nothing else could. When we spent three days in a row with no tests and no threats, I just knew something was going on. Then someone went in and purposefully separated us. They… they hurt her. Made her scream, and then we were all screaming in turn."

"What…?" No one understood what that meant.

"Aria's gift is far more complex than my own." The hacker elaborated. "She has empathetic traits. Can feel others' emotions, and project them too. And her voice, especially her songs, somehow serve as a catalyst. Those three days no one went to get us… they kept hearing her songs, and they made it so no one wanted to hurt her, to hurt us. The Kraken found out eventually, he did all kinds of tests on her, they tried to force her to control it, but a time came when even a single word would be enough… so they made it so she could no longer speak."

FitzSimmons inhaled sharply, Jemma especially pressing a hand against her mouth to hold back the horror she felt at that revelation.

"That's why she cannot talk?" Melinda guessed.

"I… it's not that simple." Skye admitted, turning to look at Aria, who nodded at her just once. "After we got out of that place… a man found us. I call him Link, he took us to a safe-place. It was through him that we learned about terrigen crystals, and about Inhumans. That's what I am. According to the legends, thousands and thousands of years ago a race of aliens called the Kree came to Earth. They experimented on humans, seeking to create an army, but at first it seemed like nothing was happening. Then something else happened, no one knows what exactly, but the Kree left. A generation or two later a group of descendants discovered the first Diviner. An object the Kree had left behind, the terrigen crystals were inside it, and when they broke they created a mist. That mist upon touch causes one of two things: if you're pure human it kills you, but to those descended from the humans the Kree experimented on, it causes something called terri-genesis. It activates something dormant in our genes, and our abilities manifest. Like my thing with vibrations. Sometimes it's not something obvious, but sometimes the mutation is physical too. Like Link, he can teleport and create force-fields; also, for some reason he has no eyes. Or Raina, her skin became covered in thorns and she had visions of the future. Me… I was lucky enough, I got my powers but did not really change physically." She let out a breath. "Link told us that there had once been a place where the Inhumans gathered, a place they called Afterlife. But then, twenty-something years ago a man found them, a Dr. Whitehall. He kidnapped several people, experimented on them, One of them was my mother, he studied her gift, tortured her and eventually killed her. My father tried to save her but they killed him too. And then Whitehall and his minions went after me… they destroyed the village trying to find me, but somehow someone found me, got me out. I've no idea how I ended in St. Agnes, exactly, I just know that whoever did it, I owe them my life… and that it was SHIELD."

Her life was such a mess! Because she owed SHIELD her life, whether they'd found her in China, or someone else had and then SHIELD had taken over at some point… they were still the ones who got her into St. Agnes. And then there was the fact that the Kraken was probably connected to SHIELD, and everything he and his minions did to her and Aria both…

"So what? There are more like you out there?" Fitz wanted to know.

"Maybe… probably." Skye shrugged. "Link said they were once a Tribe, strong… but after what happened when I was a baby they all scattered, trying to survive. He knows that many have died, and when he can, he helps those that remain, but it's not easy. There's no sanctuary for them to go to when they need a break anymore, no one to help guide those who turn… and the crystals… they used to be kept by a Council, they decided who changed, those young enough to be able to adapt, yet old and mature enough to accept whatever change might come. See, not just anyone can handle terri-genesis. The kind of change that overcomes you, knowing that you'll never be the same again… It made Raina insane, a complete basket-case; and JT, all he wanted was to cause destruction, regardless of who he might hurt, even himself. It's likely that the only reason I didn't lose it too was thanks to my sister..."

"You said that you were inhuman, you… but not your sister?" Melinda asked, curious.

Skye looked at Aria again, who seemed to ponder on things for a moment before nodding. Waving a hand at Skye, as it would be easier if she told the story, rather than having Aria sign everything and then wait to see if the others understood it.

"No, Aria's not an Inhuman." The brunette sister shook her head. "We don't really know all the details but apparently there's something in her, in her soul, that was brought up first when her dad was killed, she was with him, almost died herself; and then when the terri-genesis took place, the mist tried to either change or kill her, and instead it forced whatever was at her core to manifest, and so she got her gifts. We don't know the origins, though we know she's not Inhuman, meta or mutant. Raina used to call her Songstress, and Princess… then again, she called me Queen… so that's not much to go on." She sighed. "Link believed that her soul was not from this world."

"Not from this..." FitzSimmons repeated, confused.

"Like from Asgard? Or some other Realm?" Coulson inquired, curious.

Skye just shrugged, saying not a word. Something seemed to flash in Aria's hazel eyes, but it was just for a moment, gone in a second and even those who noticed it weren't sure if they hadn't hallucinated it, it was there and gone so fast…

"We met one person, after Link." The hacker went on. "A Chinese man, called himself Wong. He said someone had sent him, some Mistress of his, he gave us this..." She waved her wrists to call attention to the armbands. "There's some kind of enchantment on them, or something. Basically they absorb my power when I'm having trouble controlling myself, the energy is split, between these, and the ones Aria wears, allowing it to diffuse harmlessly. Because as we discovered, if I use my powers too much, or too carelessly, or try to hold them back when too emotional, I end up hurting myself, vibrating my own body… it's not good."

"Don't you hurt your sister like this?" Melinda worried.

"No, the bands are made to allow for safe diffusion." Skye assured her. "They also keep us connected, allow us to know when the other might be in danger."

"Why would someone send those to you?" Jemma wanted to know.

"No idea." Skye shrugged. "I think it might have something to do with Aria's past life, or the origins of her soul, or whatever, but we just don't know."

All eyes turned to Aria, whose own remained close. She didn't react to the comments at all, as if she hadn't heard a thing, and in the end no one pressured her.

In the end they decided that that was enough for one day. Enough shocking revelations and heart-felt exchanges. It was time to move on.

Skye never asked them to keep her secrets, though Phil still made the choice not to report their gifts to HQ, not even to Fury. He shared some of it with his lover, but that was necessary, as Darcy was helping him track down the 'Kraken', whoever he might be. She agreed not to tell anyone else a thing, Fury included. Then again, considering Nick didn't know about her own status as a mutant, that wasn't much of a surprise…

 **xXx**

Missions continued, life went on, and then one day the team found themselves in the Command Center, watching footage of Thor and Loki fighting against a bunch of white-skinned aliens in dark clothes with Drs. Foster, Selvig and another young man's help… in the middle of London.

Aria hissed under her breath, and when turning to look at her Skye saw her eyes flash as she seemingly muttered something under her breath; the hacker had no idea what it was, and didn't even bother to try.

Orders came for them an hour or so later. They were to go to London and help with the clean-up, particularly make sure nothing dangerous ended in the black-market or something. It was a simple, easy mission. Of course, because things could not remain simple and easy forever, just as they were finishing with clean-up, news came of a new mission, and off they went to a National Park in Norway…

As insane as things got very fast, it was a wonder for the team to see Aria work when she was in her element. At first it'd been Coulson's intention to get in contact with some Doctor in Spain who specialized in Norse mythology, until Skye reminded them all that her sister was a genius, and she loved mythology. It took but minutes for Aria to pull up all the information they needed, the myth of the Berserker staff. Learning what the object (or a piece of it) they were dealing with might be, while good, didn't really help things once they all realized how dangerous it was: an object capable of feeding on rage and turning it into strength, power? Very dangerous, as the NeoPaganists turned vandals were proving.

They got to the second half of the staff just in time, what no one was expecting was Ward's reaction to it. He blacked out, and Skye barely thought of not touching the thing when she found him. The team secured the piece of the relic and took the unconscious agent back to the Bus… things did not got better once he woke up. They pretty much turned worse…

Skye tried to get Ward to talk to her, Fitz tried to be friendly, Simmons wanted to give him a sedative… Ward didn't take it well.

"And if we crossed paths with those juiced freaks, the ones who can flip cars and smash people up, are you going to take them on?" He demanded of the three younger people. "Keep us safe? Or am I gonna…?"

They never got to hear the rest of it. From one moment to the other Aria was there, cradling his face between her hands, eyes closed, as if focusing very hard on something. Ward breathed out slowly and his whole body seemed to sag abruptly.

"Hey!" FitzSimmons cried out in shock.

Aria stepped back then, swaying a bit until Skye held her. By the time they all turned eyes to her they noticed she was almost shaking, eyes tightly closed, teeth nearly grinding.

"What did she just do to me?" Ward demanded, though there was no actual accusation in his voice, only wonder.

"She took away your hate." Skye answered quietly.

She didn't explain that emotions couldn't just disappear, they had to go somewhere. Which was why Aria was acting like she was in that moment; Ward's hate had to go somewhere, so she'd taken it into herself, replacing it with peace… she could handle it, she'd done it before, but it'd take a while. So Skye took her to their shared bunk.

"I thought you said she used her voice to channel her power." Was the first thing May said when Skye got back to the Command Center.

"No, I said she could channel her power through her voice, doing so allowed her to do amazing things… but the power is not in her voice. It's in her." Skye clarified.

A ping interrupted their conversation, as the algorithm Skye had been running gave her a result, they knew where the last piece of the staff was.

Things got easier for the last part of the mission. The team got to the monastery in Ireland in time to retrieve the final piece of the staff, then, when the NeoPaganists arrived, Skye used her powers to throw them back and push the piece of relic away from them, making it so no one had to fight them directly. It would take a while for the effects to pass for them (no way were any of them allowing for Aria to do what she'd done to help Ward, not again), but in the end they'd done good. All pieces off the staff were recovered, the criminals were heading to jail, and they were all just fine… or they would be.

 **xXx**

That night they were staying in a hotel, Coulson's little reward to the team for a job well-done (what none of them knew was that he'd received a very special visitor that night…). Grant Ward found himself unable to sleep in the middle of the night, he briefly considered finding out if Melinda's earlier invitation to spend the night was still open, but found he wasn't interested, not in sex with her, and not in anything more. He just had too much on his mind.

Instead he decided to go for a walk. He wasn't sure how exactly, but he found himself in the hotel's bar. It was empty (it was that late). Unlike in more high-end places, the room wasn't closed, which explained how there were two people inside, despite the fact that drinks were no longer being served. They were both in sleeping clothes and the first Ward noticed was the young woman in an off-white nightdress, sitting behind the concert piano, playing and singing softly:

"2am; where do I begin,

Crying off my face again.

The silent sound of loneliness

Wants to follow me to bed."

"I'm the ghost of a girl that I want to be most.

I'm the shell of a girl that I used to know well."

"Dancing slowly in an empty room,

Can the lonely take the place of you?

I sing myself a quiet lullaby.

Let you go and let the lonely in

To take my heart again."

The Specialist sensed movement to a side and turned in time to see a second young woman, in a purple and gray cami-and-shorts set, barefoot, sitting curled up in one of the winged armchairs; brunette hair in a loose twist at the nape of her neck, a phone set almost carelessly in the small table before her… it took him several seconds to realize it was Skye; and then his shock became even greater when he comprehended that the girl at the piano, the one singing her heart out… was none other than Aria. Aria, the girl who supposedly couldn't talk, was playing the piano and singing! And not only that, but her voice was probably the most beautiful Grant had ever heard…

"Too afraid to go inside

For the pain of one more loveless night.

Cause the loneliness will stay with me

And hold me till I fall asleep."

"I'm the ghost of a girl that I want to be most.

I'm the shell of a girl that I used to know well."

"Dancing slowly in an empty room,

Can the lonely take the place of you?

I sing myself a quiet lullaby.

Let you go and let the lonely in

To take my heart again."

Time and again Grant considered speaking up, interrupting, or even just approaching Skye… yet some instinct inside stopped him, told him not to move from his spot. Whatever was going on… he couldn't interfere, it was better to wait for the end and then ask for some explanations, because the sisters were keeping secrets from them… again. (Then again, it's not like he didn't have secrets of his own… some quite huge… though that wasn't the point! Or so he told himself).

"Broken pieces of

A barely breathing story

Where there once was love

Now there's only me and the lonely."

"Dancing slowly in an empty room

Can the lonely take the place of you?

I sing myself a quiet lullaby

Let you go and let the lonely in

To take my heart again."

The song came to an end slowly and Aria just sat there for several seconds that seemed like forever. Then she turned towards Skye, who was already standing. She said not a word, just stood beside her sister and began guiding her, like one would a little girl. It was until they were nearly at the door that Skye noticed him. Her eyes widened abruptly but before he could say a word she shook her head slightly, using one hand to signal him to wait. He noticed then that Aria wasn't looking at him, didn't seem to be noticing his presence at all… like she wasn't all there…

So in the end Grant followed the sisters back to their room, where he watched Skye put Aria to bed before slipping out of the room. He followed her again then, to the staircase, where she sat on the top step before patting the space beside her as a sign for him to join her.

"So, ask then." She told him simply.

"I thought Aria couldn't speak." He said the first thing that came to mind.

"Yeah… it's not that simple." Skye let out a sigh. "She's long since healed from what was done to her in that lab… but she still won't speak… not when she's herself anyway."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Grant really didn't understand.

It was insane! He wasn't supposed to care, caring was a weakness, and he had a mission! But he just couldn't help it (had never been able to help it, if he was honest with himself), he cared about Skye, and even about Aria, he cared about the whole team. Things were only going to get messy, but he couldn't even think about stopping.

"I suppose a shrink would call her lack of speech a psychological response to trauma." Skye admitted softly. "Those bastards… they tortured her into not speaking, made her associate it with pain, for herself, and for me… so now she simply cannot bring herself to speak, much less sing."

"What was tonight then?"

"It happens sometimes, especially after she's used her powers actively. Aria goes into this place… like a separate corner in her own head. Sometimes she speaks to me, like she used to back when we were little girls, before the Kraken, before that damned lab… most of the time she sings. I have dozens of songs recorded and saved in a highly encrypted virtual cloud. I keep them for myself, so I can listen to her voice sometimes…" She swallowed back a sob before something else occurred to her. "Oh, you cannot tell anyone about this! Especially not Aria."

"What?!"

"I suppose you'll see it, but really, in the morning she won't remember any of this. Not the song, or playing the piano, not even getting out of bed after we retired earlier. It's always the same. Like she's someone else when she does it… like she's the person she used to be before our lives were ruined. The sister I used to have..."

"Why doesn't she remember?"

"Again, I think it has to do with trauma, cannot be sure, mind you. I remember the day after we escaped from that lab, I woke up curled up against her, we were hiding inside what must have been a service station at one point, though it'd been long since abandoned. We were miles from the lab… and I haven't the faintest idea how we even made it that far. The scrubs I was wearing, the clothes they gave us, they were covered in grime, mud, and blood. Apparently I nearly died the night before… except I don't remember it."

"What is that supposed to mean?!"

"It's the truth. I think I remember pain, and the sound of a gunshot, and Aria over me, mouth open in a voiceless scream… then I blacked out. And the next thing I knew, yeah. Then when she woke up, her memories seemed to have holes. She remembers the time in the lab, though there are small pieces she's forgotten, she doesn't remember half the stories she used to tell me when we were in St. Agnes together, about the Egyptian prince and princess who lived time and again, always finding and loving each other, life after life…"

Grant rolled his eyes at the theme of the stories, but did not interrupt.

"The first time I heard her sing was the night G… Link got us. I thought she'd finally gotten past what had happened to us, that she was healing. Then in the morning I tried talking to her, and she wouldn't speak… I tried to pressure her, to force her to open her mouth and just… it wasn't a good day." Those were painful memories, and Skye didn't even know why she was sharing them, it just seemed right. "It was until the third such time that I realized what was going on, the fact that she didn't remember, that she wouldn't."

"Like a sort of dissociate personality." Ward offered.

"I suppose." Skye shrugged. "To me they're both my sister. And while it hurts knowing she's not whole, that she might never be whole again, I love her nonetheless."

"I know you do." Grant nodded.

"Who knows?" The hacker added. "Perhaps one day she might feel safe enough to come out. To be free, sing again, perhaps..."

A wild idea occurred to Grant just then, he'd no idea where it even came from, but he was sure he was right, somehow…

"You know the truth, don't you?" Regardless of how he voiced it, it wasn't really a question. "All you said before about the mysterious origins of her soul… you know the truth about that. Where it comes from, who she truly is..."

"I do." She admitted quietly. "But she doesn't. When she gets in those moods, when she sings… it's like she begins to remember, but it never lasts long. She… that version of her, I call her the Songstress, she knows who I am, how long I've been there… here. She trusts me. She… she promised me that one day my sister would be whole."

"And you will protect her until that day comes."

"And every day afterwards."

There was silence for several seconds and then:

"Wait, she's not an Egyptian princess, is she?" Ward blurted out without warning.

Skye couldn't stop herself, she laughed.

Not another word was said and eventually Skye just stood, smiling a small, sad smile as she nodded once at Grant and walked away, back to her room, to the sleeping sister who wouldn't remember ever waking up. Grant watched her go, wondering just how fucked up he truly was, because in that moment it felt like no matter what he did anymore, he was screwed.

* * *

If you have any questions leave them in the comments and I'll do my best to answer them (unless the answer is a spoiler, then I'll explain that and you'll see it in the story itself).

In case anyone actually reads my notes and was wondering, I just returned from my first Book Fair ever (my editor invited me) in Ohio. It was absolutely awesome.

As always, full sized cover and set of wallpapers can be found in DA, my pen-name there is Princess-Lalaith.

Don't forget to leave comments and (hopefully) kudos and see ya around!


	2. Sky and Song

So... I know things in this verse have been darker than in others, and some still have yet to be revealed... but well... it happens. I still think it will be worth it in the end, for most of our characters at least.

Don't have much to say right now, except I hope you'll continue enjoying this fic.

The songs in this chapter are: "When the Darkness Comes" as sung by Colbie Caillat and "Nothing Else Matters" as sung by Marlisa.

P.S. There's a little surprise for you all in this chapter, but you'll see it in due time!

* * *

 **Sky and Song**

The Sky would protect the Song, until the day came for them to stand together.

She was sitting on the peeking roots of a huge white ash tree, with roses and several other flowers of all colors all around her, she could hear the nightingales singing; there was such perfect peace in that mix that she couldn't help but relax completely. She was almost relaxed enough to fall asleep when a voice called to her, in a language she couldn't remember ever learning, yet she had no problem at all understanding…

"Hello my love..."

Hazel eyes snapped open and she silently took in the man on one knee before her, with alabaster skin, slicked-back black hair, slightly curly at the tips, dressed in green silk and black leather; though what hooked her were his jade-green eyes…

"My match..." She breathed out automatically.

His smile was blinding. And just like that, it all came to her: He was Loki Odinson, the Trickster, the Maverick, second Prince of Asgard, one of the best sorcerers in all the realms, her consort, her match, her one and only love… and she was Silbhé Salani, the Nightingale, reincarnation of princess Tinúviel of Alfheim and Asgard…

She didn't even stop to think about it, simply threw herself at him, holding him tight and kissing him passionately.

She spent the next few hours curled up in his lap, telling him everything about the team's latest mission, and the fact that she was quite sure her sister was in love with the 'Robot-Agent', who'd been acting less than a robot in recent weeks…

"I really, truly wish she could meet you..." Nightingale finished softly.

Silence was her response, and when she raised her eyes she could see green eyes looking away, a tension in their corners that hadn't been there before, while her beloved worried and laughed at different points of her retelling.

"I know..." She murmured, very softly. "I know that is not possible right now… that I will not even remember any of this when I wake up..."

"My Nightingale..." Even the Silvertongue didn't seem to know what to say to that.

"It's not your fault, my love." She assured him, caressing his face lightly. "I just… I wish I were stronger sometimes. Strong enough for you… for us…"

"You, my princess, are the strongest person I've ever known, in any of the realms." He assured her, intense. "What's happening to you… it's not your fault, but of those monsters who thought they could break you..."

"And they did… they broke me..."

"Only for a little while, and even now you're putting yourself together again. It's not easy, I know that my love, but you're doing it. You'll get there."

Of course, if someone knew about being broken and putting themselves back together it'd be him. He'd been broken, after all, more than once. First when she… or her past-self at least had died, and while Odin Allfather might have believed that making him forget would somehow help him, it hadn't, not really. Loki had remained broken for a very long time… until her return. What happened when she was six years old, when she and her dad were in that awful car accident… (which wasn't actually an accident, she knew that, an assassin had been after them, and she'd miraculously survived). However, being so close to death had changed her, had put her in touch with pieces of herself, of her soul, she probably wouldn't have known existed otherwise. She'd awakened her old self, and what woke up on the other side was a mix of the elven princess she'd once been, and the human girl she was reborn as. At times it'd become too much, history, experiences, languages, she tended to say things out-loud to straighten them up in her own head. She knew Skye believed everything she spoke about was made-up, fairy-tales and made-up languages and songs she'd created off thin air. And while she certainly created most of her songs, everything else was very real… one day she'd tell her sister that.

That day, the day Sebastian Salani died, was a shifting point, for all of them. Silbhé forgot a lot of what she'd been, it was why she never complained, when they took her to the orphanage, when the nuns began calling her Mary Anne Poots… at least she got a sister out of the deal. That single fact made everything else worth it.

For seven years Silbhé/Anne came to believe that was it, that that was the life she was meant to live. As an orphan girl no one seemed to want (didn't matter, she had Sue, she had her beloved sister and that was enough). Then came the Kraken, his minions and that awful lab…

There was a lot from that year that she'd forgotten, and hopefully would never have to remember. Unlike the memories of her life as Silbhé, which had resurfaced through the years, she knew there was a lot that happened in that lab that she'd be much better off never remembering, and while it pained her to allow her sister to carry the memories all on her own, it was probably better that way. Regardless of what Loki might say about his strength, she was an Empath, that wasn't a gift the Terri-genesis had given her, or brought out in her whatever, if anything it had heightened it, but it had been there all along. She'd felt every single thing those madmen had done, to her, to her sister, and to everyone else… Yes, better if she did not have to remember all that.

One thing she did remember was what had happened the day they ran. The day that man decided to help them, to let them go… she knew Raina had died, killed by two awful guards who thought doing so would stop her visions of their own deaths from coming true. She also knew another had tried to kill JT while he was still recovering from the prior beating and he responded by unleashing all his power, flames blacker than the night… nothing was left of the place.

Skye… her sister had almost died, would have if Nightingale hadn't done something; and then when all hope seemed gone Loki was there, he helped her, saved them both. He couldn't take them with him, regretfully, humans weren't allowed into Asgard, and while their bond (and the fact that they recklessly chose to recite the Ancient Vows that night) might have been enough to give her the chance, it wouldn't have been so for Skye, and Nightingale refused to leave her sister behind. So she'd stayed, her love let her, let both of them go. What neither of them could have planned, was the way the trauma of the previous year, of that night, and the shock of using so much power would affect her. That her psyche would splinter as it had, effectively turning her into two separate people sharing one body: there was Aria, the girl she was most of the time, Skye's sister who had managed to survive the Kraken, who was too traumatized to speak, who'd apparently forgotten how to sing… who knew nothing of herself, of her own life except where it pertained to her beloved sister, and that had to be enough. And then there was the other side of her: the Nightingale, the reincarnated elven princess, Loki's match and consort, mother to the Queen of the Dead, a healer, a spellweaver, the Songstress… One day the two might become one again, hopefully…

"It's been nine years..." Nightingale whispered, face buried in her match's chest. "How much more will it take? How much longer will you have to be alone?"

"Oh but I'm not alone my love, I'm not." He assured her. "Thanks to you, remember? Because you convinced me to take the risk, to trust my brother… and it worked."

Yes, it had. She remembered that much. It was the other time he'd been broken (at least the only other she knew about). She'd tried to be there for him, in their dreams (since she could do nothing while awake), but she knew it just wasn't enough. Loki hadn't taken finding out the truth about his origins well the second time, worse than the first time even, and with the Allfather going into the Odinsleep, Thor exiled for doing something stupid (again) and Lady Frigg sitting by her husband's bed… no one had been there for him, to hold him and tell him everything would be alright, that his blue skin changed nothing. That he was still Loki Odinson…

The month she spent dreaming of his fall through the abyss was the most anxious filled time of her life; but what followed was even worse, all the nights filled with his fear, his pain… he came so close to giving up time and again, yet never dared, because he knew his death would destroy his match, much like hers had him. And he was willing to endure all that torture to save her from that… Nightingale never imagined someone loving her that much.

Which is why, once he got out of that place and back to the Nine Realms, once he began with his plan for the Chitauri invasion, she did her best to make sure he wouldn't be alone anymore. The Mad Titan was onto him, which meant he couldn't sleep, and thus they couldn't talk; but when that failed she decided to play dirty. It wasn't the first time she was herself when awake, not even the first time she spoke to Skye when like that; but that was the first time she pretty much pushed 'Aria' aside to take control (usually it only happened after the other side of her had used a bit too much of her gifts, as they were part of her soul, and thus tightly connected to the part of her that was Nightingale). She didn't tell her sister everything, there was no time, but Skye's trust in her was absolute, so when Nightingale asked her to hack SHIELD to leave a message warning them about Loki not being the villain, she did so, even changed her usual signature of _BlueCloud_ to _Nightingale's Sister_ hoping that would be enough for Loki to know who was behind it.

It had worked, as Nightingale herself learned the next time Loki and her managed to meet in dreams. Fury hadn't liked it, but Stark was all for infuriating him, Thor still loved his brother, and when pull came to shove, the rest had followed their lead. So in the end, Loki had become an Avenger (which he'd complained about, at length, to his match), and had helped fight back the invasion of New York (they tried to keep it from happening, but it was impossible).

Nightingale knew that that wasn't enough to solve everything, but at least her love wasn't alone, that was important to her.

"I've waited for you for so long… even if most of the time I didn't truly remember." Loki murmured, placing a tender kiss on her hair. "I can wait one more lifetime."

The reincarnated princess said nothing to that, just held him, losing herself in the music of the songbirds around them and the heady smell of the flowers, mixed with his scent (peppermint, sandalwood and ice) envelope her in a peaceful cocoon, until the time came for her (or more like Aria) to wake up.

 **xXx**

Weeks passed, more missions: ghosts, stalkers, wannabe gifted, pseudo super soldiers, a supposed psychic; and then there was Centipede again. Through it all Skye would take a short time every other day to check through some of the files Coulson had given her access to, trying to find more about the people who'd left her and Aria at St. Agnes, and possibly the ones responsible for them ending with the Kraken. It was something very important to them, and while Skye was the one who knew computers better, Aria still helped as much as she could.

"Why do you keep losing time doing that?" May finally demanded one day.

"What…?" Neither sister was expecting that.

"Look, I get that you don't want to help us with this, got the message loud and clear, big neon flashing lights, ok?" Skye defended herself. "But I'm not asking you to. I'm not 'losing time' doing it, neither of us is. We do it every other day, in our free time, it's not interfering with our jobs, I can promise you that. And I haven't hacked into anything Coulson didn't give me access to. I respect this team, the least you can do is respect me."

"This isn't a matter of respect." Melinda reported. "It's a matter of deciding why you're here. We have a mission, and it's not to find your parents, or your names, or whatever life you might have had before you ended in the orphanage. If you two cannot put aside personal attachments then you shouldn't be here."

Skye was so shocked, and truly hurt by that she didn't seem to be able to reply to that, Aria wasn't so affected. She actually pushed May back, facing her before retorting:

+How dare you talk to my sister like that?!+

May opened her mouth, about to reply to that, when Aria waved a hand violently to shut her up before continuing herself. Even though not a word was spoken out-loud, her speech was just as intense as it would have been otherwise:

+Who gave you the right to judge us? Our choices? We're not doing this because of our parents, or even our names, we've known most of that for years now and care little for the rest. This isn't about us. This is about finding out who put us in that orphanage, because those people saved our lives; we'd probably be dead if it weren't for them, and they deserve to be remembered for that. We also want to know who's responsible for us ending with the Kraken, because someone needs to make sure that never happens again, and that sure as hell isn't gonna be you! Why? Because you don't care. You're so obsessed with your 'mission' that you've forgotten to care. Life is about more than orders and duty, Agent May. We're part of this team, and we will do our best to fulfill the mission, but that doesn't mean we're little toy soldiers, who do nothing except follow orders, we still have lives! You may be happy being a drone, but that's no reason to try and force us into being the same.+ She made a pause before adding, halfheartedly. +Also, being angry at yourself is no reason for taking that anger out on us, on my sister. It's childish and disrespectful… and you call yourself a professional! Now get out of our room!+

By the end of the speech almost everyone was standing out, and most of them were close enough to have followed everything she'd signed. No one dare say a word about it, just letting May pass, fuming. Coulson nodded at Aria once before she closed the door to their bunk, before following his old friend.

He knew she was stressed out. The situation with Centipede hadn't been going like she wanted. She wasn't used to what they were doing, the mix of personalities. Since Bahrain she'd become closed off… Phil also suspected that seeing the sisters together, and with the rest of the team, reminded her of the way things used to be, back when she, Phil himself and Maria were a team, trained by Kathryn Adler, the Sphinx; the second generation of Elites, many had called them. Phil wasn't sure if she missed those days, or if she blamed her old team for not being there to help her when things went to hell in that awful mission; then again, he'd been there and that had changed nothing at all.

In any case, there was no time to focus on that. They were on their way to confront the Centipede Soldiers, and they couldn't be distracted. Earlier Aria had gone to see him in his office, Mike had just arrived, and at first the Head Agent had feared she might feel unsure about working with the man who'd almost gotten her sister killed at Union Station, or even refuse to work with him; it wasn't that at all. No, she was worried about Mike's family:

 _+We all have our weaknesses AC.+ She signed to him. +Every single person in this world. We connect with people, and they become our friends, our family… both a strength and a weakness. With most people, that's nothing to obsess over, but those like us… The people who do the job that we do. We play by a different set of rules. Now some, like you, Ward and May, you may choose to cut all ties with people outside this team, to save yourself from having weaknesses, but not everyone can do that, and not everyone may want to. Skye and I… we're each others' strength and weakness', and we know it; we also know we're strong, can protect ourselves if necessary. FitzSimmons's families have no idea what they really do and that's its own form of protection. But Mike's family… they might not know exactly what he's doing, or who he's working for, but that's not enough in his case. Mike might have chosen to be where he is right now, to help; but you and I both know he doesn't know what he's gotten himself into. Not really, not yet. Which means we have to do what we can to help, so when he does find out, the cost won't be too high.+_

Complex as her speech might have been, Coulson got the point of it all: she believed Mike's family to be his pressure point (which was only logical), she also believed that they were in danger, or would be, once Centipede got wind of Mike. Coulson had briefly considered calling in HQ and asking for the whole family to be moved to a safe-house, but in the end some instinct inside told him to handle things differently. So he ended calling a different number instead.

The following night, after an intense fight with the Centipede Soldiers (in which Skye barely managed to keep from using her powers… they knew it'd be a bad idea for Centipede to find out about her), and several hours of them all recovering and trying to come up with a plan. Mike went to them with news that froze them all: Centipede had his son and they wanted to trade, Mike for his child…

"That's impossible." Coulson interrupted before anyone else could speak.

"Sir, this is my son." Mike tried to reason with him. "I have to save Ace I..."

"No, I don't mean you wouldn't save him, I mean they cannot possibly have him." Phil clarified.

"What?!" No one has seen that coming.

"What do you mean?" Melinda wanted explanations.

"Aria told me something yesterday, about strengths and weaknesses." Coulson elaborated. "I realized that helping us could very possibly put Mr. Peterson's family at risk. So I called a contact and asked her to get the family to a safe-house. One that is off the records. Even SHIELD won't know where they are right now."

"Are you sure my boy is safe?" Mike demanded, tense.

For all answer Phil pulled out a phone (one so heavily encrypted not SHIELD, and not even Skye would be able to hack it), and speed-dialed:

"Hey..." He called softly. "Yeah, I'm alright. The thing we thought could happen just did… Mr. Peterson got a call from someone claiming to have his son, demanding for him to trade his life for that of the boy… Ok…"

He nodded, mostly to himself, and put the phone on speaker.

"Dad? Are you there?"

The moment Ace's voice rang from the other side of the line, everyone seemed to let out a sigh of relief at the same time.

Phil left the phone on the holo-table, having already asked Skye to make sure there would be no records, anywhere, of the conversation taking place; then he nodded once in Aria's direction and left the Command Center.

"Centipede is getting bolder." May commented as he passed her by.

"Yes, they are." Coulson agreed. "We need to step up our game. Need to find who the new player, the so-called Clairvoyant is..."

May nodded. For a moment it seemed like she wasn't going to say anything else and then…

"You called her, didn't you?" She finally asked, under her breath.

"I… yes, yes I did." Coulson shrugged. "She was the best person for the job."

"I've never realized what you see in her." Melinda admitted. "I mean, I know she's attractive and young, and all but… she's nothing like your type, nothing like Audrey and..."

"That's precisely the point Melinda. Audrey and I didn't work out, we never would have, because as much as she might have admired and to a point even hero-worshiped me after we saved her life from Daniels… she never understood me, never understood my drive to be a SHIELD Agent, to protect. Darcy does. She accepts that being an Agent is important for me, that at times it may come first, above her even; she doesn't take that as something bad. We get each other, care for each other, regardless of how much time we might get to spend together. We trust each other..." He let out a breath. "Look, I've no idea what's going on through your head exactly, but you need to make a choice Melinda. You need to decide if this is the life you want, or if it may be time for you to walk away."

"What...?" The 'Cavalry' wasn't expecting that.

"I saw what went on with you, Skye and Aria yesterday, we all did." He raised a hand to keep her from interrupting. "You were way out of line, and you know it as well as I do. The sisters have proven to be loyal to this team and great assets. In fact, if all goes as planned, they shall be receiving their badges very soon. They've earned them, and you trying to put them down for doing some personal research in their free time… it's not right. I know you think that a good agent has to ice their heart over, but that's not true." His voice turned softer as he added. "I know why you had to do it, and as much as it pains me that I was unable to help you, to stop that from happening… it's not right for you to take that anger out on Skye and Aria, they did nothing to deserve that. They are not you, and I'm sure you do not want them to be."

"They will only be hurt..." Melinda whispered through the knot in her throat, after what seemed like forever. "Those two… they wear their hearts on their sleeves, just like… like we used to. One of them is even an Empath! If they continue going down the path they're right now, being like that is only going to hurt them."

"But don't you see Melinda? It already has! Everything that happened to them in that lab, it hurt them, deeply. It could have destroyed them… by all means, it should have! But it didn't, because they had each other, and that allowed them to endure, to heal, allowed them to find a way to move on, without closing off their hearts, and that has made them stronger. That's something we should admire, not try to stomp it out of them."

"I know, I know I just…"

"I know..."

And he did, he truly did. Melinda had once been just like them, and she was afraid they'd end up just like her; ironic as it might be, considering that she appeared to be pushing them into doing just that. A part of May believed that if the two shut-off their hearts before anything traumatic happened (like what had happened to her in Bahrain) then they might end up better off in the long run. Phil knew better. The sisters were strong, stronger than most gave them credit for. And so was Melinda too… perhaps one day she'd see it.

 **xXx**

When the sisters received their badges, they celebrated. For the purpose of official registries and everything they'd chosen to take the surname Nova, the same of a nurse who'd helped them at one point, after being with a particularly vicious family. And so Skye and Aria Nova became Agents of SHIELD. They were level 1, but then again, practically since Day 1, things like levels had been thrown to the wayside in the Bus. No one cared if one or more members of the team had or not the clearance to know certain things. They still had to abide by the limits when in places like the HUB, or other bases; but on the Bus none of that mattered.

After the thing with the Centipede Soldiers it seemed like they'd finally managed to make things hard for that particular operation, which gave them some free time. Mike and FitzSimmons took the opportunity to go visit their families, and even May had gone off somewhere (no one except perhaps Coulson knew where, exactly). Ward had taken the opportunity to spend some time with other Specialists (training, most likely); while Coulson invited the sisters to go with him.

It was then they met Shadow, the top-secret Agent of SHIELD; who was also TaserQueen, the Queen of Hackers; the former Darcy Lewis (whom the world believed to be dead) and more importantly (to them at least): Phil's one and only love…

The sisters shared their story with Darcy, who shared her own with them, not only where it came to SHIELD, her relationship with Phil, and the work she'd done with Dr. Foster before that… but the fact that she was a mutant, called Wallflower by them, with the ability to slip into another dimension, one of shadows, and even travel through them. It'd saved her life a few times, and even Phil's once. How it was what lead to the world believing them both dead…

Then, as if by some great coincidence, or cosmic accident, or something… they were still there the next time Aria had one of her 'episodes'. It was one of those that couldn't be predicted. She hadn't been using her powers or anything, it just came out of nowhere. And so, Phil and Darcy found the sisters up in the middle of the night: Skye standing by the glass door leading to the balcony, watching her sister in silence, while Aria stood in the actual balcony, holding tightly onto it, singing her heart out… except it wasn't Aria but Nightingale, though only Skye truly understood the difference (for the most part, at least).

"Underneath the echoes

Buried in the shadows

There you were"

"Drawn into your mystery

I was just beginning

To see your ghost

But you must know"

"I'll be here waiting

Hoping, praying that

This light will guide you home

When you're feeling lost I'll leave my love

Hidden in the sun

For when the darkness comes"

At some point it seemed like Coulson might say something, interrupt, but Darcy shushed him before a single word could escape him, instinctively knowing that it was important they not interrupt the singer. Skye for her part just ignored them both completely, losing herself in the song. It wasn't the first time her sister sung that one in particular, she'd sung it a few times in the past; the very first one being shortly after their escape from the lab, when Skye finally stopped trying to 'wake her up' during one of her episodes and instead let her do as she needed to. That song was what came out. Skye was still convinced that she was singing to someone, for someone (a someone not Skye), and while she'd no idea who, the hacker just hoped that person could somehow hear the melody he/she, whoever they might be deserved to know they were so loved.

"Now the door is open

The world I knew is broken

There's no return"

"Now my heart is not scared

Just knowing that you're out there

Watching me

So believe"

"I'll be here waiting

Hoping, praying that

This light will guide you home

When you're feeling lost I'll leave my love

Hidden in the sun

For when the darkness comes"

"(Oh oh oh)

For when the darkness comes"

Skye didn't feel any jealously, of all the love her sister felt for that person (not her) for whom she sang. And it was always the same person, the hacker knew that much. The girl knew deep inside that that piece of her sister that kept singing to her love loved her just as much as the rest of her. The Songstress and Aria both loved her equally, as much as Skye herself loved both sides of her sister, and she always would. She only hoped that one day she'd get the chance to meet this person her only family loved so much, that he might be worthy of that love. Who knew? Perhaps one say she/he would be her family too… One could only hope for such a happy ending… (And perhaps… perhaps one day she might find someone who loved her, all of her, just as much…)

"Be here waiting

Hoping, praying that

This light will guide you home

When you're feeling lost I'll leave my love

Hidden in the sun

For when the darkness comes"

"Hidden in the sun

For when the darkness comes"

To Skye's surprise, the Songstress was still fully aware when she turned her eyes away from the horizon and to them.

"Nethel..." She whispered as she stopped before Skye, kissing her brow.

The brunette had no idea what that language was, exactly, only knew that it was not of Earth and that the word meant sister, or something like it. It was what the Songstress called her, and whenever she did, Skye could almost feel the love that bound them together.

Her eyes turned away from Skye then, focusing on the other two. She cocked her head to a side, as if taking a moment to call up Aria's memories regarding them (though Skye knew she had all of Aria's memories; it was Aria who had no access to Songstress's memories).

"Son of Coul, Lady Shadow..." She whispered eventually.

Darcy bowed her head respectfully, while Phil's eyes widened almost comically.

"Why do you address me in the same manner those of Asgard do?" He asked eventually.

"I address you with the respect you're entitled to, due to your station as a noble warrior, your experience as such and the fact that you've proven yourself in battle, side by side with those as noble as you, and against those who wish harm upon all others." The Songstress stated in that eloquent way of hers, and the same odd cadence Skye had come to know well.

"You know," Phil commented after a moment or two. "That is almost word for word what Loki said when I asked him the same question."

The Songstress just smiled at him, a smile full of mystery and unanswered questions.

"Will you give me answers?" He asked eventually.

"That depends on whether you ask the right questions." She told him simply.

"Who are you?" In the end, Darcy asked first.

"Nethel calls me Songstress, that is a fitting name." The auburn-haired girl told them.

"Nethel?" Darcy and Phil asked in unison.

"It means 'sister' or something like that, in another language, one not of this world." Skye offered. "It's what she calls me."

"How long have you known her?" He asked Skye.

"Since we got out of the labs." The hacker answered simply.

"Are you a secondary personality?" Darcy asked the Songstress.

The hazel-eyed, with the light of the stars in her eyes, blinked a few times, as if not quite able to comprehend what was being asked. Eventually she gave what answer she could:

"I'm what's at the core of the one you call Aria, the parts of herself she cannot reach, due to a mix of trauma and shock, caused by what we suffered at the hands of the Kraken and his followers. We weren't strong enough to endure the hardship..."

"You're the strongest person I know." Skye cut her off.

The Songstress turned towards her, a soft smile on her lips, raised a hand to cup the Inhuman's cheek, caressing it.

"You're the greatest blessing this world, this life has ever given me..." She said, so very softly.

"Why are you here?" Phil broke the moment with his own question.

"You needed to see me." Songstress told him. "Nethel would have never told you about me, she guards my secrets, and my very existence zealously. But you needed to know I exist, so when the day comes that I might have to show myself, you won't be surprised, and won't distrust her for wanting to protect me from all, even from you."

"What makes you come out?" Darcy asked then.

"Necessity." Was all the answer the girl gave.

She began swaying then. Darcy and Phil backed off, while Skye hurried to catch her before she fell to the floor. She was asleep.

The three just looked at one another above the sleeping girl, until Phil eventually signaled for her to go. There were so many questions still left unanswered, and yet Coulson didn't feel it was right to be asking any more questions, not when the person they concerned couldn't answer them (or choose not to); so in the end he decide to let the matter be for the time being and wait. He could be patient, when he needed to. And despite all the oddities, he trusted the sisters, he knew they would not hurt him, or the team. That was enough to go on.

 **xXx**

The day May and Coulson found the only survivor of the team that had gotten Skye out of China the whole team gathered to hear the story. The former Agent (he'd been on the run for more than twenty years) was long since gone, believing that if he stopped running he'd be found and killed, just like the rest of his team, and those that had arrived before them. There was little they didn't already know, that Link (whose real name was Gordon, but the sisters hadn't told anyone that) hadn't told them when first helping them. Though one question still remained, how had SHIELD gotten to China in time to get Skye (or as her name had been back then, Daisy Johnson) away? How had they made it there before Whitehall and his minions?

On Aria's front, things were harder, the paperwork about her admittance into St. Agnes was incomplete, not even her birth-name was given; though there was a note regarding the death of her father, a suspected assassination, and the fact that she'd been with him when it happened, and thus some believed she might have been a target as well. In fact, the person she'd been had been declared dead officially, in an attempt to give her a better chance to survive. It was also why she, just like Skye, was moved around, from one place to another, every so often, in an attempt to prevent whoever might be after them from finding either. No idea whose idea it was for the two of them to be kept together, though the sisters were thankful for it nonetheless.

Then there was the Kraken… all any of them could find on that name was that it was what some people called Dr. Werner Reinhardt, a doctor in the service of Hydra, in the time of WWII. Agent Peggy Carter had captured him personally, had put him away, collecting the first 084 in record at the same time. Though they'd no idea what the object might have looked like, as the records for that were missing, same as any pictures of Reinhardt himself. Simmons had suggested the possibility of a descendant of his being the new Kraken, or an apprentice-of-sorts; Fitz had asked if he could be immortal or something? And as much as some wanted to scratch off Fitz's ideas as insane, they'd seen way too much in their time with SHIELD not to keep their minds open and believe anything was possible.

Still, that didn't help them with the matter of what had happened to them nearly a decade earlier. Though Darcy promised she'd put algorithms in place, if anyone ever so much as tried to 'give orphans away' again, she'd find out, and she'd put a stop to it. It was really the best they could do in that moment.

The mission to the SHIELD Academy was a disaster of epic proportions that nearly got them all killed… more than once. Even after it was all said and done, Fitz still couldn't believe that Donnie Gill had been behind it all, that he'd gotten ensnared by the words of someone like Ian Quinn and created a weapon like the Atmospheric Moisture Freezing Device, that he'd willingly killed other students, just to get him there, to help finish the design…

"How can someone just… just hurt other people and not care?" Fitz practically gasped once Gill had been taken into custody and they were all back in the Bus.

"There are a lot of people in this world who aren't nice Fitz." Ward drawled, and while his words were cold, there was a certain warmth in his eyes, in his stance.

It was like he understood that the Engineer was hurting, and why, wanted to help him… yet at the same time believed Fitz needed to understand the cruelty of the world, needed to accept the crude reality and become stronger.

"That's what we're here for." Skye announced strongly. "To protect those who cannot protect themselves, from those who might not care about hurting them."

"Very well said." Coulson agreed wholeheartedly.

A touch on his arms made Fitz looked up, and he found Aria before him.

+You're a good guy Fitz, and that's not a bad thing.+ She assured him. +Not everyone can be like you, like any of us. But like Skye said, that's what we're here for. To help. To make sure others aren't hurt, like those students were; and maybe… maybe in the future we might be able to even stop others from falling into the lies and dark games of people like Quinn, the way Gill did.+

"Yeah..." Fitz nodded after what seemed like forever. "Yeah, we will."

 **xXx**

Italy… was a mess of epic proportions.

Back in January, shortly before the thing in the Academy, the team had celebrated a year of working together. Even May had gotten in on the fun, which had actually shocked everyone for a few minutes, until they got used to it. At times they couldn't believe it had been so long already. At the same time, there were moments when it felt like it had been much, much longer, like they had all been together on that Bus, for their whole lives. They were family… for most of them the only family they had.

They spent months trying to find the Clairvoyant, in between missions to collect pieces of the Chitauri, and other stuff that could be dangerous in the wrong hands. The search for the Kraken and Daniel Whitehall had been pushed aside when Darcy passed on a warning from Destiny, the most powerful precog in the mutant community, who'd told her to be careful, as the wrong people were beginning to grow suspicious, it was better if they let the matter drop for the time being. Also, apparently there was a 'storm coming' though none of them had the slightest idea of what that meant, exactly.

And then Italy happened.

There had been talk, for weeks, about some weapon being transported. One keyword kept being repeated time and again: Deathlok. Even the Queen of Hackers hadn't been able to get close to finding out what that was without risking tripping over at least half a dozen alarms. So in the end they subjected the matter to a vote and decided to take a risk and intercept the package.

Arrangements had been made with local law enforcement (the last thing they needed was to get in trouble with the Italian police), and they'd boarded the train in teams: Coulson and Aria were undercover, keeping an eye on the passengers, looking for Quinn; Ward and May were secretly moving through the train, looking for anything suspicious; while the others remained on the luggage area, with equipment ready to track the package, just in case.

Something happened, at some point something had gone horribly wrong. They'd been made, a fight had broken out. Aria did her best to help, but in the end it just wasn't enough. One of the men threw her off the train, then Ward jumped off, catching her just in time to stop her from breaking her neck in the fall. Coulson, May and Peterson had been forced to jump when a grenade came into play… only it wasn't a normal grenade, and it'd been thrown right at them.

Aria and May were the only ones not affected by whatever had been in that device, so the more experienced Agent had decided to go find help, telling Aria to keep watch over the two men. If she wondered why nothing had happened to Aria when she'd been laying right beside Ward as the thing went off, she didn't say a thing (then again, she probably believed her gifts had somehow protected the girl… and she wouldn't have been wrong).

Coulson, Peterson and Ward had eventually woken up, and the two of them, plus Aria went back to the Bus, looking for a way to find the missing train, and the rest of the team. And then May'd shown up, bloody and bruised, informing them that the Chief of Police had sold them out to Cybertek, Ian Quinn, and whoever else might be connected to that package.

They found Simmons in the stopped train (stopped in the middle of the countryside, for no known reason), and then, right as they began wondering what to do next, an alert came up: one of their trackers had just been activated. So Coulson commandeered a car and drove them to the coordinates in the tracker signal.

Aria was anxious, near insane with worry and everyone could see it, they could practically feel it pouring off her in waves.

"She'll be alright." Simmons did her best to reassure her. "You'll see. Skye and the Fitz. They will both be just fine..."

It was obvious she was trying to convince herself as much as she tried to convince Aria, but no one called her on it.

They'd just made it to the place and were waiting for Coulson to give out orders when Aria's eyes shot wide at the same type she doubled over, mouth open in a silent scream… one that seemed to almost reverberate inside everyone's heads.

"What the hell?!" Ward cursed.

Simmons just let out a quiet moan.

"What was that?" Coulson asked, turning to look at Aria, guessing the odd psychic-scream had come from her.

He got no answer. And not just that, but Aria threw the door wide open and jumped out of the car. Rushing past the approaching Fitz and towards the mansion.

"Guys..." Fitz broke off as he saw her go by, worry freezing him up.

"Aria!" Simmons and Coulson yelled, going after her.

The whole team followed. Coulson and May vaguely noticed a few unconscious bodies as they passed them, and even those still awake (and whom they dropped with the Night-Night Guns) none so much as tried to get in Aria's path; like there was something about the girl, throwing off dangerous vibes, no one even tried to stop her. They came upon Ian Quinn as he (and they) reached the main hall. (they'd entered the mansion through a side-door). The man looked honestly surprised for all of one second, before his expression turned cocky:

"Where's Skye?" Coulson demanded.

Aria was frozen, and no one had any idea if she was doing something they couldn't see, or if the stress of the mission had finally gotten the better of her (not that any of them would blame her, if it had), so they turned their attention to where Coulson was standing, right in front of Quinn, gun pointing straight at the rich man's head.

"You know Agent Coulson, it's dangerous…" Quinn said, with a sort of perverse pleasure. "to keep sending her all alone, like that… when she means so much to you."

Coulson didn't get the chance to reply to that, nor anyone else for that matter, for a second later Aria moved swiftly, going around Quinn and planting herself before him, staring him down (despite the fact that she was shorter than him) for all of two seconds before moving onto him. Quinn was on the ground before he quite knew what was going on, and his groan of pain as his head hit the floor was cut off a moment later when the next hit knocked him out.

"We need to find her. Now!" Coulson decided, ignoring the fallen Quinn. "Search the house!"

"I don't think we need to do that." May offered.

No explanations were needed, Aria was on the move again, running, and it was quite obvious that, somehow, she knew exactly where she was going.

"I think she's tracking Skye." Fitz commented.

He was right. What they weren't expecting, was what they found when Aria finally stopped.

The team found themselves in a cellar. Aria had stopped just outside a door, allowing the others to pass her. Coulson's cry was enough for everyone to know that it was bad, even before they all saw Skye, immobile, laying against the wall, right beside the half-open door, one hand on her lap and shirt bloody. If that weren't bad enough, the gory trail on the cellar floor showed in a quite graphic way what had happened, and just how bad things were.

"She's been shot." Coulson said, somewhat unnecessarily.

"Keep her upright." Simmons ordered as she did her best to check her over. "I've got no pulse."

"She's lost so much blood..." Fitz murmured nervously.

"Can we even move her?" Mike asked quietly.

After everything Skye had done for him and his boy… he hated to think that they might not be able to save her. That they might have arrived too late.

And then Ward stood without waiting and went to Aria. Everyone watched as he held her by the arms tightly (some were even about to tell him off for manhandling the girl when she was obviously traumatized by what was going on) when he did something that took them all completely by surprise.

"Aria, listen to me." He said, softly yet very seriously. "I need you to listen to me. Wake up."

"What?!" Several people turned to look at him, confused.

"I need you to wake up, Aria." Ward insisted, ignoring everyone else. "Skye… you don't need to see her, I know you can feel it, feel her. She's hurt, and it's very bad. She's going to die Aria… you need to wake up!"

Fitz eeped and told him off for telling Aria her sister was going to die, while Mike looked about ready to pull him away from the still-frozen girl.

"What are you doing Ward?" May finally asked.

"The only thing that may save Skye's life." The Specialist answered vaguely before focusing yet again on the girl. "I know you can hear me Aria, and I know you know exactly what it is I'm talking about. You need to wake up." He let out a breath, his expression softening just a bit. "I know things were bad, that you're deeply traumatized. That you feel like you cannot handle, probably don't want to handle, all the awful things that happened to you in that lab. But you're strong, so very strong… I believe in you, and I know Skye does as well. Right now your sister needs you to be strong. Like you were that night, remember?"

Silence was absolute, but Aria was finally looking straight at him, and he could see a flicker in her eyes, like a candle fighting to stay alight…

"You're strong Aria..." Ward continued. "Remember that night? Remember what I told you?" He took a deep breath and dove straight in: "This is your only chance. You must run if you want to live. Run fast… Run and no matter what happens..."

"...don't look back..." A soft, melodic voice finished.

Everyone jumped at that, just a bit. All but Coulson and Ward, the only ones aside from Skye who'd ever heard Aria's voice… the Songstress's voice.

Hazel eyes blinked once more, and when they were open again they were shining with the light of the stars.

"Skye needs you." Ward told her again.

The auburn-haired nodded once before turning to her prone sister. Coulson moved away, not even knowing why he did it, an instinct inside guiding him. Simmons did not leave Skye's other side, though she didn't try to stop the other girl either.

"How do you know she can do anything?" May wanted to know.

"Because I've seen her do it before." Ward admitted in a low, almost sad tone. "The day they escaped… Skye was shot, and Aria healed her..."

"The day they escaped..." Fitz repeated, looking at Ward in shock. "You mean the lab… You mean, you mean you..."

"I was there." Ward finished with a stoic nod. "I'm the one who let them out."

No one seemed to know quite what to say to that revelation; for a moment it seemed like May might actually attack him, until they were distracted by the glowing off-white lilac-ish light coming off the hazel-eyed girl's hands. A glow that then went into Skye's body. A handful of seconds passed and then with a loud gasp, Skye began breathing again.

It took nearly a full minute, the longest minute of all of their lives, but eventually the glow died down; and a moment later Skye's eyes fluttered open.

"Hey..." She breathed out, blinking a few times, as if trying to comprehend what was going on, exactly, right then.

"Hello Nethel..." Her sister whispered softly.

That made Skye's chocolate eyes widen abruptly.

"You're here..." She croaked, looking at the team around them in surprise.

"I'm here." Songstress confirmed. "And I'm not leaving again. I promise."

Skye didn't even think about it, she threw herself off the wall and straight into Aria, embracing her tightly. In seconds the both of them were crying, happy tears. After so long, after so many trials, so much hardship… they were together again, together and whole (or almost so).

 **xXx**

When she finally pulled away from Aria, and saw all the red on her top, Skye nearly flipped out, it only got worse when she saw her own clothes and then her mind clicked and she remembered what had happened exactly.

"I died..." She gasped, almost hyperventilating with the realization.

"You almost died." Fitz corrected nervously. "Keyword being 'almost'. Aria saved you."

Chocolate eyes met hazel ones and the two sisters stared at each other for a small eternity.

"It wasn't the first time, was it?" She asked, very softly.

Aria didn't answer vocally, just shook her head.

"The things I cannot remember from that night…" Skye broke off.

It wasn't easy, learning she'd almost die, realizing it wasn't the first time, that her sister wasn't the only one so traumatized by the past she'd made herself forget some things…

"I couldn't lose you..." Aria finally spoke, holding Skye tight by her arms. "You're my sister Skye… the only family I have… I couldn't lose you."

"I know." Skye nodded once, eyes watery. "I cannot lose you either."

"You won't." Aria knew what her sister was really thinking, what she feared. "I'm here to stay, I promise you."

They pulled themselves together as local law enforcement arrived. Skye had buttoned up her denim vest to cover the blood on her top, and they all kept Aria close, making sure no one got a good look at her own clothes. The last thing they needed was for someone to ask the wrong questions; or worse, get into their heads that one or both sisters needed medical attention.

They managed to make it all the way to the Bus with little enough trouble, an unconscious Quinn with them. They still had no idea how to handle that. Quinn had shot Skye, he'd never believe nothing had happened to her; and yet the whole team knew how bad an idea it'd be for anyone outside their little group to find out Aria was a healer. If they did… she'd be lucky if she ever saw the light again.

Of course, the people thinking that had no idea who Aria's match was, but she'd already decided not to bring that up unless it became absolutely necessary. For the time being they had their own duties to fulfill. The time would come for them to be together, but not just yet. It's not like they were in any hurry, they had their whole lives ahead of them, after all.

Once back in the Bus the sisters showered and changed clothes, then they all gathered together in the sitting room, drinks in hand. No one said anything for the longest time, though eventually it was Aria who broke the silence. She left her sister's side and went to kneel before Ward, who stared at her like she was crazy, especially when she took one of his hands in both hers and bowed over them.

"Thank you..." She whispered, voice thick with feeling. "Thank you Agent Ward, for saving our lives, for saving my sister's life, all those years ago."

"That's true." Fitz nodded, remembering what Ward had said in Quinn's villa. "You said you'd been there, that you let them out."

"How did you do that?" Simmons inquired, curious.

"What I want to know, is why you were there Agent Ward?" Coulson asked, completely serious.

"And why you said nothing about this before." May added for good measure.

Aria got on her feet, returning to her place, curled into her sister's side as they all waited for Grant to explain his part in the story.

"Ten years ago..." He began, taking a deep breath before focusing. "In 2006 I was 23, had just graduated from the Operations Academy, top of my class. John Garrett took me in, became my S.O. Our first few missions were fairly easy, even boring… and then one day I was tasked with going to some top-secret facility in East Wyoming, somewhere near the border with the Dakotas. It was literally the butt end of nowhere." He spat. "I wasn't given many details, was only told to find out why the 'packages' hadn't been delivered yet. It was until I got there that I realized that said packages were a dozen young teens, the oldest barely eighteen, and that of those twelve, only four were still alive. I had no idea what to do, tried to call my SO but he was in a highly sensitive mission and wouldn't answer his comm, I was a new recruit, not even Level 2, had no idea who to go to, who to call. Eventually I decided that the best I could do was get the kids that were still alive, take them with me. Even managed to make most of the people on the ground believe that had been my mission all along. However, before I could convince them to give me the keys, all hell broke lose. An explosion rocked the place, and then there was shouting, and threats. I nicked the keys from one of the doctors, hoping I'd make it in time..." He looked straight at the sisters. "The fifteen year old girl, the one with the thorns, she was dead already. The other boy… he was the source of the explosions. So I took the distraction offered and went to you. I guided you two out of the base and told you to run, to not look back…" His voice turned hoarse as he added. "I saw one of you get shot… Skye… Killed the one who did it, but it was too late already. And then there was the light… It's how I knew Aria could heal, I'd seen her do it before. I wanted to help more, but there was a mess, there were operatives all around, shooting, so I went after them. Did my best to make sure they wouldn't find you. Never managed to get back into the facility to get the other guy, it blew up before I made it to the door. And then when I went back… you weren't there anymore."

"Did you tell Garrett what happened?" Coulson asked, intrigued.

"No I..." Grant swallowed. "I told him the place was already in disarray when I arrived. That there was nothing I could do."

"What about the Kraken?" Skye asked quietly. "What happened to him?"

"I don't know." The Specialist admitted. "He wasn't on base that day. I… I didn't know what he and the others had done to you all. They wouldn't tell me, wouldn't let me see any of the files. It's all gone now though."

"I don't like this." Melinda muttered unhappily. "I mean. This… this means SHIELD is… was connected to that place. Why then haven't we been able to find a thing about it? And this Kraken… I don't like this."

Grant winced slightly, though only two people noticed it, they turned to look at each other, saying not a word; after so many years they'd grown used to communicating silently. They waited until Ward looked at them again and then, in unison, and without anyone else seeing them, they made the same sign. The sign that wasn't part of the ASL, the one they'd already explained the team what it meant…

Grant swallowed, then nodded once, standing up.

"Ehm… Agent Coulson, I'd like a word with you, in private." He announced.

Phil's eyes narrowed at the request but he simply nodded, guiding the young man to his office. Skye and Aria just watched him go, holding hands tightly; change was coming, and they knew it.

 **xXx**

No one ever knew what exactly was said in that meeting. Though Aria could feel all of it, every so often her hold on her sister's hands would tighten, at times she'd whimper softly, or would even gasp. She was so quiet that only Melinda and Mike heard her at all, and only May suspected what was really going on.

Eventually the door opened and Ward came out. He was quiet, and almost hunched in on himself. Coulson called May up and FitzSimmons could only look at each member of the team in worry; Aria didn't even have time for that, she could feel the conflicting emotions, the mix of grief, anger, hurt, betrayal… it was almost too much even, for her.

"I'm sorry..." Grant told her quietly, probably guessing what was happening to her. "I never meant to hurt you, any of you."

"Grant, what's going on?" Skye asked him softly.

It was the first time she used his real name, rather than calling him just Ward, or one in her long list of nicknames for him (most being a variant of 'Robot'); the Specialist couldn't help but smile a bit at that, a sad smile that never reached his eyes. The fact that he didn't comment on it, not to complain, or even to point it out, sent red flags up in Skye's head.

"I'm here to say goodbye..." He said quietly.

"What?!" Skye didn't even try being quiet about her reaction.

"I'm leaving..." He murmured, trying to ignore her tone, or the way FitzSimmons stared at the back of his head. "I have to..."

For a moment no one knew what to say and then, surprisingly, it was Mike who spoke.

"We're not landing." He commented, almost offhandedly. "You're talking about leaving, saying goodbye now. But we're not landing..."

All hell broke lose then. Between FitzSimmons confusion, Skye's denials, and then Coulson and May were there as well, seemingly waiting for Ward. And she still hadn't gone to the cockpit, to land the plane.

"No!" Skye shrieked.

The floor beneath their feet shook, the whole Bus shuddering, and even the lights blinked briefly, in response to her brief loss of control.

"Skye!" Several voices called in concern.

"You're not taking him away!" She yelled, finally getting on her feet, standing between her SO and the two eldest members of the team.

"Skye..." Coulson began in a soft tone, as if trying to somehow make her understand.

"This needs to be done." May stated, in a colder tone.

"No!" Skye refused to move.

"Skye!" Ward took hold of her arm, spinning her around to face him. "You've gotta let me go!"

"Go where? Why?" She demanded of him, hiding her fear behind anger and demands. "You keep saying goodbye, but why would you have to leave now? Why would you even want to? What are you not telling me?" She took a deep, shuddering breath before adding. "Why does it feel like this goodbye is forever?"

"It's standard procedure..." May said stoically, as if that ought to be enough.

"Procedure for what?!" FitzSimmons cried out in tandem.

"For traitors." May finally revealed.

Coulson let out a breath, he so hadn't wanted the team to know that.

"What?!" No one could quite believe it, they refused to believe it.

"No..." Skye breathed out in shock.

"It's the truth." Grant admitted, looking her in the eye, and everyone could see how hard it was for him to do so. "I am a traitor Skye, I am Hydra..."

"You saved our lives..." Skye whispered brokenly.

"If I've done one good thing with my miserable life, that's probably it." He admitted with a careless shrug. "But that doesn't change what I am..."

"It changes everything." Skye insisted.

"I'm a monster." Ward pressed.

"No!" Skye shook him of, holding him instead. "No, you're not a monster! You know how I know that, because monsters don't care. Monsters like the Kraken experiment on children, torture them, kill them… you could never do that. You saved our lives… and I know you'd have done the same for Raina and JT if you'd had the chance. You've saved all of us, time and again. Never gave up on us… well, I refuse to give up on you!"

"Skye..." May began.

"No!" Skye spun around, her eyes didn't go to May though, but to Coulson instead. "You gave me a chance, gave Aria and us both chances, even when we lied to you, when we kept things for you. Where is his then?! Where is Grant's chance?! Are you going to condemn him for mistakes of the past? How does that make us any different from them? From the people that have been hunting me, hunting us both, our whole lives, just for the blood that runs in our veins, for the families we did not choose?!" Tears were falling down her face, and her whole body was trembling, but she did not care. "That's not fair Coulson!"

"Life's not fair..." Melinda tried to say, though a few couldn't miss the doubt in her eyes.

"Skye, he's Hydra..." Phil tried to make her understand.

"Really?!" Skye challenged. "Then why am I still here?! Why are we still here? Did it ever occur to you to wonder why, if he's Hydra, he hasn't turned us in?! Why he keeps protecting us…? The fact that he's even now helping us! Even as he surrenders to you, confesses the truth, knowing that you're planning on killing him! Has any of that occurred to you?!"

Silence was their response. Truth was that Coulson and May had been trying so hard to hold onto their training; the whole 'believe in the system', 'follow the protocols'… They hadn't wanted to think too much about the fact that a member of their team was a mole and neither of them had so much as suspected, that they'd all been in such danger and never realized. All they wanted was to make things right, to absolve themselves of the guilt of not looking after the team better… They'd expected some denial from the younger members of the team, a refusal to believe the truth. It never occurred to them that there might be more to that 'truth' than they knew already.

"I cannot believe you!" Skye practically shrieked again. "Are you all so lost in your protocol crap you cannot see that this is wrong?!"

"Skye!" Coulson called in a chastising tone, though it was obvious that her words were still affecting him, affecting them all.

Skye couldn't handle it anymore then, she dropped to her knees and began shaking like never before. So much her armbands simply weren't enough, the Bus began shaking with her. There were exclamations from everyone, as they tried their best to hold onto something, but they'd no idea what to do. And then Aria moved, she slipped off the sofa where she'd remained through the whole exchange, half-walked, half-stumbled to her sister, dropping to her knees before her, holding both of her arms in hers.

"You're feeling so much, sister..." She whispered softly. "You need to let it out, but not like this."

"You need to knock me out." Skye stated between gritted teeth. "I'm gonna get us all killed."

"No, I won't knock you out, you need to let your feelings out, but not like this." Aria replied.

"How then?" Skye kept trying to control herself, but she couldn't, she was too far gone.

"Sing." Aria said simply.

"That's your thing, not mine." Skye shook her head.

She tried to internalize the vibrations, but it was just too much, the grinding of her bones deep inside did not help matters any, either.

"Skye, Sing!" Aria practically ordered her.

The hazel-eyed began humming then, and though Skye still had no idea what she expected to achieve, what the point of the whole thing was, she could do nothing except comply; and so she took a deep breath, and began singing her heart out:

"So close no matter how far

Couldn't be much more from the heart

Forever trusting who we are

Cause nothing else matters"

"Never opened myself this way

Life is ours, we live it our way

All these words I don't just say

Cause nothing else matters"

"Never cared for what they do, no

Never cared for what they know, no

Never cared for what they do, no

But I know"

No one said a thing, or tried to interrupt. They noticed when the Bus stopped shaking, but even that wasn't mentioned, all eyes were on the sisters kneeling in the middle of the sitting room, holding onto each other, doing something that none of them could quite comprehend, and yet was affecting them all equally nonetheless.

Skye sang… she had no idea where the words were coming from, they just felt right. Aria for her part, or the Songstress in her, provided a backdrop for the song, a chorus and more importantly, her power, lacing it into every word her sister sang. There was a reason she'd told Skye to do it, instead of doing it herself. And it was that in that moment, feeling trumped power; there was no doubt in the reincarnated she-elf that, even without any magic, Skye's song would have been able to touch them all, the love in it. It didn't matter if she hadn't realized it yet, Skye was in love with Grant Ward, and her voice, her song, gave her away; Aria's magic was only amplifying that, and they were all feeling it. No one would come out of the other side unchanged, that was for sure.

"Trust I seek and I find in you

Every day for us something new

Open mind for a different view

Cause nothing else matters"

"Never opened myself this way

Life is ours, we live it our way

All these words I don't just say

Cause nothing else matters"

"Never cared for what they do, no

Never cared for what they know, no

Never cared for what they do, no

But I know"

At some point Grant got on his knees as well. He'd never seen Aria in action, and no one in that secret lab had ever been able to truly explain what it was she could do; even seeing it, feeling it first hand, the Specialist had no idea what was going on exactly. It was as if someone had reached into him, into the core of his self (the heart, if he even believed himself to possess one of those) and were changing things in there, taking away all the darkness, all the hurt, and replacing it with light, with good… it did not seem possible, yet it was happening. It was like what Aria had done to help him that day, after the Berserker Staff, except amplified a hundred times over. He'd no idea what would happen when the song ended; one thing was for sure though: if he lived beyond the next hour, we'd owe it all to Skye and Aria both. A debt he would never be able to pay back.

"Trust I seek and I find in you

Every day for us something new

Open mind for a different view

Cause nothing else matters"

"So close no matter how far

Couldn't be much more from the heart

Forever trusting who we are

Cause nothing else matters

Cause nothing else matters"

When the song was over no one moved, or said a word, for the longest time, it was as if no one knew quite what to say, or do anymore. Like each of them was waiting for someone else to make the choice, to do something, to decide… FitzSimmons held onto each other, and even Mike was frozen in place, all of them in wait. It would be hard to tell, if Coulson's choice had been different how they'd have reacted, if they'd have followed orders, or fought against them. In the end, when the decision came, it seemed to be the most natural thing in the world.

"We're landing in the Hub in fifteen minutes." Coulson announced. "May and I will be delivering Quinn directly to Hand, along with a warning about what's coming. The Bus will be refueled and then we'll take off. We'll be going off grid. So if any of you want to stay behind, stay with SHIELD, that's your choice, I won't hold it against you. Those who choose to stay, be on the Bus exactly an hour after we land."

Nods were the only reply to that.

"Are you sure about this Phil?" Only Mike and the sisters truly heard May as she asked that, even as she and Coulson walked away.

"The only thing I'm sure of right now Melinda is that if we want to keep this team together… then we'll have to make a hard decision, probably the hardest ever." Phil answered honestly. "It's time we all choose: SHIELD and its protocols, the same that allowed Hydra to grow inside it over the last… who knows how many years… or this team?" He made a pause before adding. "You know I won't hold it against you if you'd rather walk away..."

"I made that choice once already Phil, I chose to walk away, it was a mistake." May reminded him very softly. "I'm not making that mistake again."

Back in the living room the remaining members of the team were looking at each other in silence.

"I'm sorry guys..." Ward whispered quietly, looking at FitzSimmons mostly.

"It's… it's okay, I think." Fitz assured him a shy smile. "I mean, you chose us right?"

"Yeah, yeah I chose you all." Ward agreed, with a growing smile that showed he was only just realizing that, and the implications.

"I choose us too." Simmons agreed.

Fitz just nodded.

"You saved my life." Mike stated when they all turned to him. "Saved my boy. No one else would have done that for me. So you can count me in."

"Family means nobody gets left behind..." Aria quoted again with a soft smile.

"We are family." Skye added for good measure.

And so, the choice was made.

 **xXx**

Handing over Quinn was the easy part. Telling Victoria Hand what was coming and making her believe, without telling her how exactly they knew it was true (and without her placing them under arrest as some sort of precaution) was a whole other matter entirely. In the end she warned them she'd be checking some things with her sources, assuring them she'd make sure no one found out what they knew; and would be calling on them later on… she'd no idea that neither Coulson nor May planned on being in the Hub by the time that happened.

FitzSimmons, practical people that they were, used the given hour to collect as many provisions as they could without looking suspicious. In the end it was enough for them to make a show about how inconvenient it was to be on the move all the time, and how they needed to stack up just in case… Most of those who saw them probably thought they were too nervous to be working on the field, but no one suspected the truth of what was going on.

Skye, for her part, used some of her hacking expertise to get a back door into the systems in the Hub, so they might be able to keep up with whatever might happen on the grid. She also set-up a program that would erase all of them and the Bus from every SHIELD database, the moment they went off the radar. She'd discussed that part with the others, and she'd promised FitzSimmons and Mike that once whatever storm was coming had passed she could put them back again, or even create new identities for them, if they so wished. Until then it was better, safer, if they simply did not exist (the rest of them did not have much to say, as they cared little either way).

Ward was perhaps the most stressed-out from them all. A mix of dread, nervousness, doubt and even fear assaulting him. He was almost sure that someone would come by and arrest him at any moment; or perhaps not even that, perhaps they'd just shoot him on sight. And while a part of him couldn't help but believe he deserved it, every time he looked at Skye all he wanted was to live… if only so he might continue protecting her. He never could have hoped for her to love him like he did her, to want to be with him like a part of him secretly wished he could be with her… but he'd be happy enough to remain close, to be able to save him, even just once, like she'd saved him, before she even realized she was doing it.

"Everything will be alright..." Aria whispered to him. "You did the right thing Grant..."

"I know." If there was something he was sure of, it was that.

"You'll be happy." She told him out of nowhere.

"What? You see the future now?" He joked half-heartedly.

"No, and I don't need to." She smiled softly at him. "I can feel it..."

"You shouldn't want me to be with your sister." He said in turn. "I don't deserve her..."

"Some might say I don't deserve her either, a lot of the trouble we've been in has come from my own refusal to deal with the trauma of what happened that day." She pointed out evenly. "All Skye's done in the last decade, she's done it to protect me. And I couldn't reciprocate, because I was too afraid to face my own pain… She could have died, if you hadn't forced me to face the truth that day… You took that risk Grant, and you did it for her. And in doing so you saved her, and you saved me too in some ways… Now it's our turn, let us help you."

He didn't refuse, but didn't agree either. The time for their departure was approaching and he decided it might not be the best time to argue. She wasn't about to give up, though:

"Love is not a matter of worth." She told him softly. "Some might even say it's not a matter of choice either. It's a pull, absolute, inexorable, inescapable. It's a bond that ties to people together, tighter than any chain, and at the same time frees them more absolutely than anything else in the world ever could. Most people will never fully understand the path they walked to get to that point, they will only realize it once they're there, and most might even convince themselves that they've been there all along. Perhaps they have… some do believe that love is eternal, that a true match is with us through time, life after life, that nothing, not time, space, life or death can ever separate them..."

"Do you believe that?"

"Oh… I do much more than that, my friend… I know..."

Her mind illuminated with a picture of her match, her Maverick, her Loki… one day they'd be together. And who knew? It might even be soon.

 **xXx**

When the time came no comments were made, no questions asked, no one inquired if the others were sure of their choice. The time for all that was past. They simple locked the Bus and then they were off. The moment they hit 30,000 ft., Skye flipped a switch (virtually) and they were off the grid, everyone also knew that in a matter of seconds they'd effectively stop existing. No one off that plane (except Darcy, for obvious reasons) would so much as know for sure they were even alive. That was the way things had to be, for the safety of them all.

A storm was coming, hard choices had to be made, and they made it… they chose family.

* * *

DON'T READ END NOTES IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE CHAPTER!

So, having said that. How did you like Skye singing? I love the fact that the actress herself is also a singer. And while she's not part of Nightingale's bloodline by birth, she's technically part of the family anyway (here as Nightingale's sister... in the main timeline as Rose's daughter). Also, she deserved to have her moment, her say (her song). Hope you liked it.

Next week we'll have the final part of this AU, which, as I've said before, is the last of this cycle. I'm taking a break from Nightingale for a few months before coming back for the fourth and last installment in the main timeline.

Well, that's that for now, please don't forget to comment! I enjoy your words as much as you (hopefully) enjoy mine... possibly even more. See ya!


	3. Quake and Nightingale

This is it! The final part of this AU, and of this cycle of AUs. In case you don't read the End Notes, READ THIS: I'll be taking a break from posting in this series for the next four months or so. After which we shall be diving into the fourth and final arch of the main timeline, which will consist on either two or four stories, not sure yet. More details on that in the End Notes.

Some of my readers have said they believe I was too cruel on my main characters this time. I know, I hope what's coming in this final chapter will make it at least somewhat worth it, in your eyes. Enjoy!

The song for this chapter is "The Call" as sung by Regina Spektor.

* * *

 **Quake and Nightingale**

Together they were strong… together they changed the universe…

Nightingale would never forget the first time she met with Loki in dreams, after piecing herself back together. Even asleep, a part of her was still feeling the after effects of the adrenaline rush of her time in Quinn's villa, of when Grant had knelt before her and forced her to face her past, to confront her trauma or lose her beloved sister… and then everything that had followed…

She'd never channeled her power through another's song, someone else's voice, she didn't even know it could be done! But it could, and somehow… either her magic and vehemence or Skye's voice and passion, had managed to convince not just Coulson, but the whole team, to take a leap of faith. To leave it all behind… for family.

She hadn't asked for her name to be changed, and didn't plan to. For Loki she was Nightingale, his match; but to everyone else the only name that held any true meaning was that of Aria. That was the name of the Agent of SHIELD (could she even consider herself an Agent when they, for all intents and purposes, were abandoning the agency?); more importantly, that was the name of Skye's sister… of the member of the Bus's team… So she was keeping that name, she was staying Aria Nova; Nightingale could be a nickname… or perhaps a code-name.

It'd be hard to tell how long Nightingale sat on the roots of the white-ash tree; that tree, along with everything else around her, the clearing itself was a mix-up of her little sanctuary in Alfheim and the private garden Loki had built just for her in Asgard.

Her love made an appearance eventually, looking more than a little bit out of sorts.

"My Maverick," She called him softly, concerned. "Everything alright?"

"Things have changed in a rather… significant way, and in a most unexpected manner." He answered cryptically.

She did not press him, just waited patiently for him to speak.

"Lorelei." He practically spat the name.

"Amora's sister?!" Nightingale practically eeped as she sat up abruptly.

Lorelei had been part of Amora's insane plans, the last of which had ended with Nightingale's past life: Princess Tinúviel, dead, along with her unborn second child. Loki had killed her himself for that; but Lorelei hadn't been killed, instead she'd been imprisoned, her power bound.

"You know already of the mess that Malekith caused last year, how it began in the dungeons..." The Asgardian Prince ran a hand through his hair carelessly. "Apparently no one thought to check through the place after it was all said and done. Several of the cells had been damaged. It took a while, but eventually the prisoners escaped. We caught half of them easily enough, too stupid to get very far; but the other half… those took longer. No one even thought to tell me that Lorelei was among their number until she'd enslaved almost half of our unit."

"But you're alright now..." Nightingale murmured, looking him up and down to make sure.

"Just fine." He assured her. "She thought she could enslave me, just like she had everyone else. Was surprised to discover otherwise. On the positive side, it made it easier to capture her."

"She didn't expect you to be matched..." The reincarnated elf realized. "She was in Asgard when the enchantment was made, so she forgot, just like everyone else."

"Exactly." Loki agreed. "Which bring us to my point. She's the unexpected manner, so-to-speak, what's changed is that now everyone knows."

"They remember!" She couldn't quite believe that.

"They're beginning to." He shrugged. "Pieces at a time, some more than others… but the point is, they now know I have a match. In this life..."

Nightingale said nothing to that, though she suspected that that particular revelation had not gone down well. It had taken so long for the Allfather to accept her, and even then he hadn't fully believed their declaration that they were an involuntary match… or a match at all. She knew it was nothing against her, not really, though it'd still hurt. She knew he'd only created that enchantment that made everyone forget about her in an attempt to save her beloved, to pull him away from the self-destructive path he was going down… She still had no idea how he'd react this time around.

"Mother in particular doesn't understand why, if I have a match, and we've found each other, we're not together." The sorcerer added for good measure.

"What did you tell her?" The reincarnated princess asked very quietly.

She truly loved Frigg, always had; the last thing she wanted was for the woman to think bad of her because of her choices…

"I told her that you have family who needs you." Loki embraced her, knowing well enough what she was feeling, what she feared. "I promised her that one day I'd introduce you to her. She made me promise that you'd let her meet your family too."

It was actually better than anything Nightingale could have dared hope, she just smiled.

One day, they'd be together; the two of them, and perhaps their respective families too. The now-human-girl had a feeling that if Loki and Skye ever met, it'd be riot… AC probably wouldn't thank her for that. The thought alone was enough to make her giggle.

 **xXx**

The team only got in contact with Nick Fury once, in the aftermath of the Hydra reveal. It didn't go well. At first Fury tried to appeal to Coulson, convince him to become the new Director of SHIELD, going as far as dismissing Skye's comment that the Captain had ordered it to go… (though thankfully 'Shadow' had managed to stop him from his original plan of dropping all things both SHIELD and Hydra on the web… that would have been a mess of epic proportions and would have gotten dozens of good agents, and innocents, killed). And then Coulson turned the matter on him, demanding an explanation on how Fury had allowed innocent children to be taken from the orphanage and be trained as operatives. The former Director couldn't even pretend he'd no idea what Coulson was talking about, Darcy had passed them the information, having gotten it while erasing the Triskellion databases (while BlueCloud and IronSmith remotely rescued anything that might be needed in the future).

"St. Agnes is not like any other orphanage, Phil." Fury eventually told him. "Half the kids there are children of agents we've lost, either to death, permanent injury, insanity… or sometimes things even worse than any of those. The other half tend to be children of enemies of SHIELD, and sometimes just kids who became orphans in suspicious circumstances."

Like having their father assassinated by the Winter Soldier…

"It's still not right Nick!" Phil insisted. "It's supposed to be their choice, not yours! Who are you to decide what they do with their lives?"

"Please Coulson!" Fury scoffed derisively. "If you saw them… most of those kids would have been on the street, doing drugs, whoring themselves out; would have been dead before leaving their teens if we hadn't put them in the right path."

"Still not your choice to make!" Coulson hissed.

For a moment no one said a word and then, surprisingly, it was Aria who stepped forward. She turned to look briefly at Phil, who nodded at her in silence.

"Auntie would be so disappointed in you..." She told the former Director in a kind, almost motherly tone.

"Who the hell are you lady?!" Fury demanded, obviously taking offense at her tone.

"Agent Aria Nova." She answered promptly, an almost doll-like smile on her face, though her eyes glinted dangerously as she added. "Though once, a long time ago, before my father was killed by the Winter Soldier and I was declared dead for my own safety, my name was Silbhé Arianna Kinross Salani..."

Fury couldn't hold back his surprise at that revelation, and they all saw it.

"I was in St. Agnes." She went on, evenly "I was one of the unwanted… along with my sister. We were part of your little project… SWORD…" Her eyes narrowed. "You took our choices away from us, forced us into situations we never wanted to be in. Your desire to play god with the lives of innocent orphans allowed us to become test subjects for the Kraken and his minions… I will never forgive you for that. For the hell my sister and I endured, or the ten innocent lives that were lost in that facility..."

"Silbhé..." Fury finally said after what seemed like forever. "You're Katharine's niece..."

Aria rolled her eyes, deciding that it was pointless, Fury hadn't listened to a single word she'd said, she turned around and left; completely ignoring his attempts at calling her back. Skye half-snarled at the screen before rushing after her sister, Grant at her heels. FitzSimons too followed them after a moment more, leaving only Phil, Melinda and Mike (standing in a corner, saying nothing) talking to the presumed-dead former Director of (the no longer existing) SHIELD. For several seconds no one said a thing, though it was obvious Phil was quite angry, eventually though he managed to calm down just enough to speak:

"I think I can safely say none of us want anything to do with SHIELD, Nick." He deadpanned.

"What are you going to do then?" Fury challenged. "Retire? Live somewhere in the country, a twisted little family?"

"We're not twisted, though we're certainly a family." Phil refused to rise to the bait. "And no, retirement isn't in the cards for any of us. Actually, we have plans to go hunting. After all, someone has to make sure Hydra truly falls this time."

"You will need SHIELD for that." Fury insisted.

"No, we really won't." Phil smiled at him, almost mischievously.

"They will get you Phil, and your little team..." The former Director was grasping at straws by that point. "And you have SHIELD property."

"Didn't you know? The plane doesn't exist anymore." Melinda spoke for the first time. "And for that matter, neither do any of us."

"Do us a favor Nick, stay our of our way." Phil added for good measure.

And then the call cut off.

"Think he will follow the advice?" Mike asked quietly.

"Hard to tell." Phil admitted. "We're still on the same side, and he knows that. Even if he disagrees with our methods..."

"Aria's revelation really threw him off." Melinda added. "He spent a long time trying to find that girl… especially after Kathryn's murder..."

"I'm sure he never expected her to end in that little project of his… or what would become of it." Phil added, a hint of steel in his tone.

Really, none of them would ever forget the things the sisters had told them they'd gone through… and they knew there was a lot about their time in that facility they still hadn't shared, and quite probably never would.

"You know, I can almost understand his point." Mike admitted. "The whole, 'putting orphans kids on the right path', the ones that would have lost themselves otherwise..."

"Doesn't change the fact that it wasn't their choice, and it should have been." Phil reminded him.

"Yeah..." Mike couldn't help but look at the implant in his arm.

What he'd become… it might not be what he'd first pictured, when that doctor approached him; but still, it had been his choice in the end. Aria and Skye hadn't been so fortunate; they'd done the best with what they'd been given, but that didn't change the fact that someone had decided to play god with their lives, and things could have ended very differently…

"Now what?" He finally asked, focusing on the leaders again.

"Now we go to ground." Phil answered. "Wait for Darcy to join us, then we prepare for war."

Yep… Hydra wouldn't know what hit it.

 **xXx**

It wasn't quite as simple as that, but still. In less than six months the world came to know the Sentinels a mixed group of former Agents, Enhanced and Gifted, working together to take down what remained of Hydra and to help those who might need them, regardless of whether they were human or not.

There was a secondary mission though, one not many were aware of. As they traveled Skye did her best to find what remained of her people, help them, sometimes by getting them out of literal trouble… but most of the time simply by letting them know they weren't alone. Before too long, other rumors began, though those only moved in certain circles; some talked about a powerful gifted gathering allies, others about someone uniting the gifted around the world… the most shocking though, were the rumors about the Inhuman Queen that traveled the world, looking after her scattered people…

"But why are they doing this?" Skye practically whined when she found out about the last one. "Why?! This isn't what I wanted."

"I don't think this is a matter of what you want." Mike told her sincerely. "Not really. It's probably more about what they want… what they need, to believe in."

"What…?" She wasn't expecting that one.

"From what you've told us about your people… when they lost your mom, and their sanctuary, they lost themselves." Mike explained calmly. "They've spent the last twenty-something years lost, roaming, without a place to call home..."

"But I have nothing to offer them!" Skye's voice actually went through an octave or two as she said that, distressed.

"You have yourself." He told her with a smile. "Even without a place, a physical location… you going around, helping them, even just talking to them, you've given them back hope. The hope that one day, in the future, they might get all that back. A family, a home… I'm sure I don't have to tell you how powerful something like that can be."

No, he didn't have to, he knew that very well, they all did.

And so, even though she really didn't want to do it, that she was terrified that she might fail somehow, let them all down… she did not stop what she was doing. Even tried harder, to make them understand that she was no royal, had no intention to be one, all she wanted to do was help… The Inhumans kept calling her Queen though…

 **xXx**

Time passed. The Sentinels kept doing their thing. They brought down Daniel Whitehall (whom they eventually discovered was the Kraken) saved those he'd brainwashed and sent them off. They also dealt with Gideon Malick, and many other so-called heads of Hydra. And others too, like B-613, a couple of cartels, a couple of vigilante groups: the Watchdogs, and the 'Friends of Humanity'; and exposed a government organization who was experimenting on gifted, while at the same trying to form their own private army: the ATCU…

They came across the 'new SHIELD' twice. Once when Hand tried to capture them, failed thanks to Skye's interference, and then was left ranting and raving about 'freaks' pretending to be agents. The second when another of the new leaders (because apparently there was a sort of 'Board of Directors', instead of a single person in charge): Robert Gonzales, sent several of his people after their own missions, trying to infiltrate someone in their team. All his attempts failed, and when he eventually engineered a meet things got very tense, very fast. At least he wasn't rude towards the three gifted girls, or the enhanced (Mike), he tried to convince them to join SHIELD, to which they all laughed:

"Gonzales, my team and I… we were barely considered SHIELD even before it fell." Phil told him eventually. "The way we work… you don't like it. If we agreed, you'd want us to fall into line, and we both know that will never happen. So why don't you just forget about this failed plan and let us continue as we have thus far. We've done good work, apart, and that's how it's going to stay. Besides, we both know that at least half of your Board will never agree to work with Mike, much less the girls..."

Coulson and May both knew that in the end Gonzales was only trying for the sake of forming a united front. For so long SHIELD had been the 'only line of defense'… that they didn't know what to do when they had to share the right and responsibility with others. And the Avengers were one thing, but aside from some big missions, they didn't seem to be interested in doing much (or as some would put it, in 'interfering' with SHIELD's work). The Sentinels on the other hand… they played by no one's rules, not the enemy's, and certainly not SHIELD's. They were unpredictable, and most people didn't quite know what to do with that.

 **xXx**

They were in Cairo when the call came. They'd actually been in Alexandria first, answering the call of a potential gifted, though as it turned out, it wasn't an Inhuman, but something else entirely; concerning a pantheon of gods none of them were truly familiar with. And then the surprise came in the form of three people who recognized Aria… or at the very least her voice and soul. Skye had been so giddy with excitement when learning that she was meeting actual royalty (or reincarnated royalty whichever)! And when she realized that they were actually the Egyptian Prince and Princess her sister would tell her stories of when she was little… she practically squealed.

Carter Hall (the reincarnated Egyptian warrior prince in question) just rolled his eyes at the whole thing, while his wife (and match life after life) Sharifa just smiled. Their daughter Kendra was two, three years younger than the Nova sisters, and they all got along like a house on fire (something Carter actually, jokingly, commented on, more than once). It'd been shocking for them to find out that Kendra, young as she might be, was already promised in marriage, to her own match: Prince T'Challa of Wakanda.

It was during that visit that Aria, for the first time, spoke openly of her own match. She hadn't yet told the team who he was exactly, though Phil and Grant at least had very strong suspicions about his identity. Skye was the only one who knew for sure, as Aria had promised never to lie to her, or keep such a secret from her.

On that same line, Aria was the first person told when Skye and Grant decided to take the chance and move from friends to a couple. Aria had been very specific in what would happen to the man if he ever dared to hurt her beloved sister; and while Grant would never admit it to anyone, he was honestly frightened, if only a bit, by the seriousness of the hazel-eyed girl as she threatened him with near-forgotten forms of torture if he did anything wrong… not that he planned on ever doing something like that, he loved Skye more than his own life. Aria believed him, she just felt the need to warn (threaten) him, it was the principle of the thing… and her match had gotten a kick out of the whole thing. Even just through the stories, he'd come to see Skye as a sister as well, and he agreed with his match completely that she should never have to hurt again.

They were having a pretty good time, all things told. The bust of a mission turning into what could almost be called a vacation… and then the call came. The call came from Destiny, there was a situation in progress in the African Coast, Mozambique to be precise, and unless they did something to help, a lot of people were going to die… They were on the move instantly, the Halls choosing to join them.

The left the Bus in Cairo, the quinjet (which they appropriated from one of SHIELD's abandoned bases at one point) going faster; managed to make it to Maputo Bay in just under six hours. It was mid-afternoon when they landed, and they'd just stepped onto the open ramp when the sounds of a battle in progress reached their ears.

"Very well." Coulson called. "According to Destiny we have a host of robots powered by a single AI. Darcy, Skye and FitzSimmons will be staying here, doing their best to deal with that, or at the very least disconnect them from the net."

The four weren't even with the rest of them, having already begun to work on doing exactly that, practically from the moment they left Cairo. Kendra was with them too, while she wasn't a hacker herself, she had gotten in contact with people in Wakanda who were, and who were doing their best to aid the two best hackers in the world from a distance.

"Hawkman, Hawkgirl, we're counting on you two for aerial support." Coulson went on. "Your priority is to make sure no robots get away. May, Peterson and Ward will take the ground; Nova will head over to the Avengers quinjet and secure it, just in case; I'll coordinate from here."

There were nods all around and the team got in the move.

They were all suitted up, and unlike her Egyptian friends, who chose old-style armor; and May and the men of the team who chose the same kind of bodysuits they'd grown used to when with SHIELD; the sisters had chosen differently. For Skye it was dark jeans, a gray sleeveless top, a long black-leather jacket and black leather combat boots; hair pulled back in a tight ponytail. Aria for her part favored a short-sleeved, calf-length dress with a slit down the front, short-shorts and a long-sleeved light top underneath, low-boots and finger-less gloves, all in various shades of purple; hair pulled back in a bun at the nape of her neck. Very different from what SHIELD would have ever allowed; then again, they weren't SHIELD anymore.

Aria waited until she was sure that the team was well and truly engaged, and they were unlikely to turn her way, before making her way through the brush, in the direction of the Avengers' quinjet. They were expecting Dr. Banner to be on the craft, hence why she was the one going instead of Coulson (while they all, Phil included, agreed that the Avengers deserved to know the truth, after all the years that had passed… the middle of a battle was probably not the best moment; so they'd wait until that part was done).

"Dr. Banner?" She called lightly, not wanting to surprise the man, or worse.

The back of the quinjet was open already, and a middle-aged man peered out at her with some curiosity mixed with a healthy dose of doubt:

"Excuse me, who are you?" He asked, guardedly.

"You may call me Nightingale, doctor. I'm with the Sentinels." She introduced herself with a small smile and a bow of her head.

"I don't think we've met." Banner commented, distrustful.

"No, we haven't." Aria didn't see the point in lying to him. "A contact warned us about trouble brewing in this place and my team decided we could be of help. Two of my own are trying to get Ultron out of the web, limiting him to what physical bodies he might have gained by now, the rest have gone to the Salvage Yard to help in the direct fight."

She hoped that being open and honest would allow the doctor to trust her, at least a little. In any case, she wasn't planning on leaving him until they were all sure that they'd managed to avoid whatever Destiny had seen that would lead to the death of many innocents… she wanted to believe it had to do with the open battle already taking place; but gut instinct told the once-elf that it couldn't be that simple.

She was right, of course. She sensed the presence behind her a moment before red mist clouded her eye-sight.

 _Flashes crossed her eyesight: Alfheim, Asgard, Helheim… Salani mansion in Maine… the not-car-crash that killed Sebastian Salani...the Kraken and his secret lab… the terrigen crystal being dropped into the room, breaking, the mist, and those around them screaming, Skye holding onto her hand tight… returning to their little studio apartment in L.A. to find her sister missing, and that video in youtube about a near-disaster in Union Station…_

 _It was as if each image appeared and tried to grab her, but nothing could. Nightingale, her consciousness kept slipping like sand through fingers, and then it was just her, standing in the middle of what looked like a garden. She looked down at herself, she was wearing a pink-violet dress, in a style very different from what she favored in her current life; her body didn't feel right and then… and then she noticed her swollen belly, she was pregnant. When she raised her head she realized she wasn't in a garden anymore, but in one of the many halls of the golden palace of Asgard. Around her were near a dozen handmaidens, laying on the ground after being thrown away; and it wasn't just them, Helena was there too… her light, her daughter! And… and that was Amora, approaching her…_

 _No! Nightingale fought against the events taking place around her. She knew what was coming, she'd already lived through it once, and she wasn't going to do it again. Amora would kill her and her unborn baby-girl, her Meril. Helena would try to save her and nearly die herself in the process. Loki, her beloved, her match, would arrive in a rush, murder Amora for daring to attack her, but it'd be too late already, she'd have bled too much, she'd die in Loki's arms, her last breath left in a kiss._

" _I know how this story goes! How it ends! And I'm not living through it again!" She yelled into the ether, calling on all her power._

It wasn't easy, but Nightingale managed to tear herself from it all. Besides, what was the point in reliving her death? She was alive again, and one day she and her match would be back together. One day they'd get their daughter, both of their daughters, nothing else mattered…

The red mist cleared with a snap and Aria spun around, dropping into a stance automatically. She watched the one responsible for her visions give a step back, shocked; she obviously hadn't expected Aria (or anyone) to be able to fight back against her power. She looked of East European descent, light skin, brunette hair and steel-eyes; was in a short red dress, black-leather jacket and black ankle-boots. There were red sparks in the tips of her fingers, her powers; which Aria guessed went beyond whatever mind-thing she'd just failed at.

And she wasn't alone; Aria couldn't see anyone else, but she sensed the girl wasn't alone. Knowing better than to give anything away, the hazel-eyed girl shifted her stance a bit, just enough to allow her to move her left hand, tapping into her armband rhythmically; the gifted had no reason to think anything of it, but her sister would pick up on it through her own armbands, and she knew enough Morse code to tell Aria was requesting back-up.

"Dr. Banner?" She called, out-loud. "I truly recommend you not interfere in this. It's better if you stay where you are… and as you are right now. I can handle this."

"Think you can handle this?" The gifted hissed in a heavy accent. "Think you can handle me? You have no idea what you're up against, little girl… what I am..."

"Neither do you." Nightingale pointed out with a light shrug. "You may have an extraordinary gift, I do not doubt that. But tell me, do you have any experience going against people who actually fight back? Or have you grown complacent, used to going only against those you can use your mind-tricks on and render defenseless? Because that's not being capable, or experienced, that's just being lucky, having an advantage. That can be good, yes; but what do you do when someone actually fights back, when you cannot use your tricks? Tell me, are you ready for that?"

She didn't actually give the younger woman (she'd no idea how, but Aria could sense it, the other gifted was young, early twenties, perhaps not even that, and yet there was so much pain and grief and… hate inside her… it was awful) a chance to answer. Instead Aria threw himself straight into the fight.

The hazel-eyed girl was right, the other gifted had no training in hand to hand combat, and she compensated with her own powers. She kept using some form of telekinesis to throw things at Aria: rocks, branches, whatever she found near. She also sent what looked (and felt) like shocks. For the first minute or so the reincarnate she-elf kept dodging, until a part of her decided enough was enough, it was time to take the gloves off (figuratively). So, centering herself, she took a deep breath and pulled at her core, at her beloved's magic.

Nightingale sensed the moment when it worked; and when, but a fraction of a second later, her match became aware of exactly what she was doing. His delight at it, and at the realization that for the first time since her (their) awakening, they were quite close in the real world… the wait was coming to an end, finally. But first, first there was a battle to win.

The next time the witch threw a shock at Aria, the auburn-haired spell-weaver slammed her hands into the air, summoning a shield, which she then threw at the brunette, throwing her several feet back by the force of the magic alone.

There was a minute shift in the air right then. Aria stood, waiting, she could sense the other gifted approaching but she made no move to fight him, or even to evade him, she knew there was no need. What followed was the sound of a body slamming, hard and painfully, against what might as well have been a brick wall. Except it wasn't, there was no wall, just the air… pure air the vibrations had solidified into a wall even stronger than any physical one.

"Hey sis!" Skye called as she entered the clearing slowly, hands still raised, ready to fight. "Mind if I get in on the game?"

"By all means..." Aria drawled back.

"What the hell are you?!" The brunette snarled. "What did you do to my brother?!"

"Technically, I did nothing to your brother." Skye pointed out cheekily. "Technically he hurt himself. Then again… he intended to hurt my sister so..."

The witch snarled, in that moment there was no doubt about her wishes; Aria moved before she could, with a wave of her hand the brunette girl found herself flying several feet before hitting a nearby tree and then… she didn't touch the ground.

"What are you doing?!" She screamed. "Let me go! Let me go bitch!"

"Wanda!" The speedster snapped.

He couldn't run to her, or to anyone, couldn't even get on his feet; as apparently his crash against Skye's wall had been enough to either sprain or break something in his leg.

"She's just fine." Aria assured him simply. "I have no intention to kill her, or even hurt her. I'm just preventing her from doing exactly that."

"Let us go!" The boy yelled at her.

"We cannot do that." Skye shook her head. "Because if we do… a lot of people are going to die, innocent people. And see, that kinda goes against what we believe in. We live to protect… all who need protecting."

"Who the hell are you?!" The aforementioned Wanda demanded.

"We're the Sentinels." The sisters answered in unison.

For a moment it looked like the speedster was considering running on his busted leg, but before he could, two shots rang out; and the twins collapsed.

Dr. Banner, who'd just peered out again, believing the confrontation to be over, flinched at the sound. Obviously feeling uncomfortable about it all.

"Did you have to kill them?" He asked quietly.

"They're not dead, just unconscious." Skye answered as he relaxed just a bit.

Aria lowered the girl to the ground, satisfied that things were safe enough.

"Unconscious?" Banner obviously wasn't expecting that.

"They're ICERs." Darcy informed him as she approached. "The bullets do not penetrate the skin. They carry a dendrotoxin that is administered on impact, it knocks them out. They'll have a hell of a headache for a while, once they awaken… but that's about it."

She was the one to shoot the twins, having just stepped out of the shadows.

They were still standing there when Iron Man landed in the middle of the clearing.

"What the hell just happened here?!" He demanded. "Brucie-Bear! You alright?"

"I'm just fine Tony." Bruce assured him with a little smile. "Is it over?"

"I..." Stark looked around, at the two unconscious gifted, and the three girls still standing, wondering what exactly had happened. "Yeah, it's over."

"Definitely." Darcy agreed.

She and Skye had made sure of that, made sure to block Ultron from the net; the others would ensure not a single body was left. It would be over.

"Guys." Iron Man called into his comm. "It's over on this end. The two enhanced are down..."

"Gifted." Skye corrected him. "The right term is gifted."

"Gifted, enhanced, what difference does it make?" Stark demanded.

"An enhanced is someone who either changes himself, or is changed by someone else." Aria informed him calmly. "A gifted is either born with abilities, or with the potential for them. They're meant to be different in ways the enhanced aren't, but force themselves to be."

"Those two were experimented on by Strucker." Iron Man pointed out.

"Perhaps," Skye shrugged.

"Do you truly believe that someone like Von Strucker has the skill to create people like them, with the kind of abilities they possess." Aria snorted.

"He just got lucky." Darcy offered her two cents. "Those two, Wanda and Pietro Maximoff, they're mutants. The Community lost trace of them, of their line, as the gifts went dormant for a generation or two. Until them..."

"Al…right..." The billionaire shook his head, probably deciding the whole thing was over his head anyway. "Anyway," He turned his attention to the comms again. "The Maximoffs are down for the count. There's no code green to worry about..."

"All the Ultrons are destroyed." Two voices reported on the other side.

"So, does that mean now we can go party?" Iron Man wanted to know.

"You'll have to wait a while for that party Stark." Clint informed him soberly. "Everyone's out for the count. Well… all except Loki… and that other team who arrived afterwards. That witch did something to them, messed with their heads. Lokes is doing his best to undo it, but he says it'll take a while."

"Tell Hawkeye that our team can get you all to the quinjet." Darcy instructed him. "You'll be safer here anyway."

The billionaire passed on the message. It didn't take long for the two teams to arrive. Hawkman and Hawkgirl were gliding somewhat, carrying the unconscious Captain America and Black Widow; Mike was helping Loki half carry, half drag Thor; while Ward, May and Hawkeye followed in lose formation, tired but alert in case something else happened. After all, Klaue had managed to get away, and they'd no idea how many of his mercenaries might have chosen to either run or hide, rather than fight; it was better to be careful.

The group gathered together soon enough. The Avengers had their doubts about how contained the two gifted might be, which Darcy did not appreciate.

"We know what we're doing!" She snapped. "These are ICERs! The doses are calibrated for enhanced and gifted!"

"ICERs… weren't those things SHIELD issue… or Hydra?" Stark drawled.

"Hey!" FitzSimmons cried out in tandem, offended.

"We're not Hydra..." Jemma began.

"And we created the ICERs." Fitz added. "Hydra stole our work..."

"Good thing we always kept some things to ourselves..." Simmons added more quietly.

"You're SHIELD?" Banner asked, curious.

"Were." May qualified. "We decided to quit."

The Avengers would probably assume that they'd done so because of Hydra, and the Sentinels decided to allow it; it was better than trying to explain everything that had really happened; and they really weren't going to explain Grant's place in that whole mess.

Before anyone else could say a thing, Thor woke up, and then things really became messy…

"Lady Darcy!" Thor cried out. "You live! Bless the Norns!"

"Darcy…?" Clint blinked in surprise. "As in Darcy Lewis?"

"The one and only." The former Agent Shadow drawled.

"You were reported KIA years ago along with..." Hawkeye didn't dare finish the sentence, but there was no need for him to.

"Along with me." A quite voice added.

All heads turned, and there he was: Phil Coulson, in the flesh.

For the next five minutes or so it was absolute pandemonium. Half of the Avengers couldn't believe what they were seeing; the other half were convinced it had to be some kind of trick. Though, on that front at least Thor made things quite clear:

"It is the Son of Coul!" He declared in a tone that allowed for no contradiction.

"How you so sure big guy?" Stark asked, the most skeptic of all.

"It's his soul!" The blonde prince of Asgard declared with a bright smile.

"What?" Banner was confused. "You mean like you can see souls, or something?"

"It's not quite like seeing… we simply know." Thor answered, more subdued. "It doesn't happen with just anyone. But there are those we… resonate with, those we see as family, even if no blood binds us. We are connected to those people through our souls, and though we can recognize them, no matter the time, the place… life or death..."

His eyes turned, and then they were fixed straight on Aria, who'd been standing by the side all along, waiting. She could barely hold herself back, knowing her match was right there… but he was busy helping his team recover from the witch's attack, she didn't want to interrupt, so she waited. Until the last of them opened their eyes.

"Go..." Skye nudged her in the arm. "He's waiting for you."

There was mischievousness in her eyes, which was echoed in her sister's.

For a moment Aria considered approaching things slowly, carefully, like she always did. After all, the Avengers had already gotten quite the shock, they wouldn't thank her for another one… then again, the chance was just too good to pass up…

With that in mind Aria ran, straight through the two groups and to Loki who, sensing her intent, was ready for her. She threw herself into him, wounding her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist, he caught her easily enough, not even having to step back, his own arms going around her waist to hold her up against him. And then they were kissing. A deep, wild kiss… the kind that would have sent all those uppity Asgardian Elders into a tizzy… nevermind the ones in Alfheim… the thought made her laugh inside. And then the kiss broke and she was laughing on the outside too, never letting go of her match.

"What the hell?!" Stark, Barton and FitzSimmons cried out at the same time.

Skye just laughed like crazy, same as the Halls (four of probably five people who understood what was going on). Thor smiled, glad to see his brother and his match together again.

Around them things had gone crazy yet again, but Loki and Nightingale simply didn't care. They were together again, after so long… nothing else mattered after that.

 **xXx**

Somehow (none of them were ever fully sure how it happened, exactly), Stark managed to convince Phil and his team to follow him elsewhere. The Halls decided to stay behind. Klaue had managed to escape, but he'd left the vibranium behind, and they'd plans to return it to its rightful owners. Nightingale was sure it was the perfect way to present to Wakanda its future Queen…

They still traveled with the Sentinels back to Cairo, in order to leave them, the vibranium, and move to the Bus; they'd meet with the Avengers in New York the following day.

And so they did.

It wasn't easy. Sitting down and explaining the long and complex story (stories actually, as each people in the room had their own) that had brought them all to be where they were in that moment. Not everything was said. The Sentinels were still keeping Grant's former connection to Hydra under wraps, and the sisters refused to give much detail about what had happened to them the year they spent in the Kraken's lab, they just said enough for the Avengers to understand their abilities, both in fight, and their gifts.

None of the Avengers were happy at Phil's and Darcy's story, all the way they'd been lied to. Though in the end they were willing to let it go. It wasn't easy, but they decided it was better to just try and move on. Darcy had even revealed to them her status as a mutant, it was necessary, to explain how she knew so much about Xavier's Institute, and trusted him to be able to handle the twins and either put them in the path of redemption or, if that was impossible, at the very least contain them safely.

Everyone was absolutely fascinated by all the stories the Sentinels had to tell about their years and a half working for SHIELD, and even more so what they'd been doing since leaving the organization behind. Surprisingly enough they weren't quite as interested in Nightingale's part in all, other than to state it was all way too insane. What caught, and held, their interest most, was in regards to the Inhumans…

"Why are you so interested?" Skye eventually asked, tone a bit colder than entirely necessary.

She wasn't sure if it was something in her blood, or just her nature, but she couldn't help but get defensive about her people whenever she got the slightest notion that someone might wish them harm in any way.

"How interested would you be in giving your people a place to go to?" Stark asked, absolutely serious (something entirely too rare on him). "A sanctuary…? A home..."

"I will not have them go to some place where a new version of the Kraken might experiment on them, or turn them into their private army or..." Skye began, irritated.

"I have no interest in any of that." Stark cut her off. "I have a property in Upstate New York. It's technically a warehouse, or set of warehouses. They haven't been used in forever, but with some remodeling and retrofitting I'm sure they could prove quite useful. You could create a haven, an Academy, whatever you wish, for your people, for your Inhumans." His voice took an odd tone, like a mix of cheeky and something else no one could quite name. "Lead your people to their Promised Land… Your Majesty..."

Skye opened her mouth once, twice, thrice… then swallowed. She had really no idea how the hell to reply to that.

"Why are you doing this Stark?" It was finally Grant who asked the question.

"Years ago..." Tony cleared his throat a bit when he'd trouble talking. "Not many people know this, but I've known Charles Xavier since I was a child. He's as good as my uncle… I found out about his Institute when I was ten-years-old… I wanted so much to be a mutant, just to feel like I fit somewhere, anywhere… but it wasn't safe. Howard disliked mutants; he wasn't openly against them, but I knew he didn't like them; and Mother was simply terrified of them all, especially Magneto and his Brotherhood. So the best I could do was stay away, make sure neither of them would play too much attention to Charles and his school..." He shook his head. "Years later, after they were gone, I found a way to 'donate' money every so often; always personal money, so as not to involve SI. I also made sure to make it untraceable, for their safety more than my own. Through the years, every gifted I've met, whether by accident or design, I've pointed them Charles's way. Still, I've always wished I could do more, that I could help more somehow…" He focused on Skye. "This is something I can do. For you, and your people. I don't expect any sort of payback, I don't want to experiment, or to make them an army. If any of them ever wish to join us Avengers, or your own team, or even form a team of their own… that's their right, I'd never force anyone to fight. All I want to do is what's right."

No one knew quite what to say to that. Everyone knew Tony Stark was a philanthropist of course; that when he believed a cause, he gave it his all… yet somehow, somehow what he was doing in that moment seemed to go beyond all that.

"I accept." Skye said finally, after what seemed like forever.

It was absolute insane, and she knew that, they probably all did. But how could she refuse? In the last couple of years (the last decade) she'd wanted nothing more than to be able to help her people more, than to be what they wished most from her, what they saw her as… their queen, their savior… How could she turn down Stark's offer to be precisely that?

"I'm with you." Grant assured her, though they'd both known that already.

None of them had the slightest idea what that decision would mean for the Sentinels exactly. Would they stop existing? Would they continue in their free time? Perhaps they could all chip in, help with the Academy. Work together to protect the Inhumans… it didn't matter if they were such themselves; what was more, it would be the perfect opportunity to show her people that not all humans feared them, or hated them, that some could be on their side too…

 **xXx**

Skye had known her sister would have to leave someday. Of course she had known. But it had been an instinctive knowledge, something in the back of her mind, a fact she knew was there but chose never to look too closely at… until it became an unavoidable reality…

Everyone stuck around until the old warehouses were fully retrofitted and remodeled. One had been turned into offices, labs, classrooms and the like; another had been reinforced to serve as a training area (set to endure even the Hulk, and with materials that could absorb even Quake's powers); the last few buildings had been fixed into apartments; most would act like dorms as they all knew most of the inhumans were young, however there were a few adults who, if they agreed to stay, would require other accommodations.

The first people to join were actually the Maximoff twins. They weren't inhumans but mutants; yet one of the first things they'd all agreed on was on not differentiating between people in the Academy. Gifted, enhanced, 'normal'; mutant, meta, inhuman, witch, were, baseline, etc., they were all the same in the Academy. Just like the team considered each other equals. Ace would be settling there too, even though he was human, and his father was an enhanced (the boy was actually quite thrilled, both with the chance to be close to his dad again, to meet so many people he considered awesome, and to become one of the first humans to embrace the idea of equality regardless of 'race' or genetic status).

The Maximoffs weren't exactly redeemed, but at least they'd seen the wrong they'd done, all the tragedy they'd have caused if they'd continued down the path they were. They were having a harder time accepting that Stark was not to blame for the deaths of their parents, he hadn't built that bomb personally, and even if he had designed it, he hadn't chosen where it went, it wasn't his responsibility (though he'd still done, and kept doing, everything he could to help those who'd been unjustly hurt by his weapons, since having learned that they weren't always used by the right people, for the right reasons). There was also the fact that the Maximoffs apparently were part of Magneto's bloodline, though at least they had no intention to seek mutant supremacy like their grandfather (great-grandfather? They weren't quite sure) once had; and having at least some family still alive seemed to have helped anchor them. They were willing to give the Academy a try (as long as they didn't have to work too close with Stark for a while yet).

From the time the physical labor was over, plans began for the Aesir princes (and Nightingale) to go to Asgard. The brothers wanted to check in on their family since they'd been away for over a year, taking down Hydra bases and tracking down the scepter (which they'd found in a base in Siberia just before the mess of Ultron, and it was only because Loki had put it under magical lock after Stark was finished with his tests that the bunch of robots the psychotic AI took over couldn't get to it). Also, Nightingale needed to be (re)introduced to the Realm Eternal as Loki's consort and match… and a part of her really wanted to visit Alfheim as well, find the man she'd once called brother, see what had become of his life. Having her sister was wonderful, yet it also made her wish to find all she'd once called family. Her original human family (the one she had when she was reborn as Silbhé Salani) might all be gone, but there were others, like the team, like Thor and his family, like Erynion and Thenidiel…

In the end Skye managed to convince her to stay at least until the first group of Inhumans arrived. The brunette wanted her sister there for that moment.

Things had changed on that front too. While everyone in their team (and the Avengers) still called her Skye, legally she was Daisy Johnson. And her husband was Grant Johnson (after ruining Christian Ward completely, and making sure Thomas was safe, Grant had decided he didn't want to keep the Ward name any longer, so upon marrying he'd decided to drop it for good and take hers instead, everyone was very supportive).

Darcy had recovered her own name too, though she used it only for legal purposes; most of the time she was happy enough being Darcy Coulson.

Link, or Gordon, as he introduced himself, lead the first group into the Academy. Most of them people around Skye's age, the children he'd saved upon the fall of 'Afterlife', the last sanctuary. The Sentinels expected them to be afraid, hesitant, but nothing could have been farther from the truth. They were all eager, thrilled to be there and more than willing to help with anything that might be necessary to make the place a home.

"You're confused..." Gordon commented as he stood beside Phil.

While Skye and Grant were the official leaders of the Sanctuary and responsible for the well-being of everyone; he'd been appointed 'Principal' of the Academy, as well as still being the leader of the Sentinels.

"Have to admit it's not exactly the reaction I was expecting from a group who's been forced to spend their whole lives in hiding." Phil admitted ruefully. "Not that I think it's wrong..."

"No, I understand you." Gordon cut him off kindly. "What you fail to understand is what Daisy, your Skye, means to us. She's the daughter of Jiaying, our Shīmǔ… our 'teacher mother'. While most people in China nowadays might use that term to refer to a teacher's wife, we hold onto the roots of that word. Jiaying was our teacher and our mother. Our leader..."

"Your Queen." Phil finished for him, remembering what Stark had said when offering them the estate; and the rumors going through the web about Quake…

"Yes, our Queen." Gordon nodded. "When we lost Jiaying… we didn't just lose her, we lost everything. The same man that killed her came after the rest of us in an attempt to find Daisy, and it was only by a miracle that they failed."

"He's dead now." Coulson offered. "We made sure of that."

"I know." The inhuman nodded. "They told me. But you see, in our minds the fall of our Shīmǔ and our tribe became linked, one a consequence of the other… having now her daughter not just embracing her heritage, protecting her people, but also giving us back a home..."

He didn't finish, and Phil didn't need him to, it was clear enough. Skye had built up her own legend by giving back everything the inhumans had once lost, in one way or another.

"And from what I've heard, the young Miss Aria turned out to be royal as well." Gordon commented right then, face turned towards where he could hear the girls' laughter.

"Yes." The Agent nodded. "Nightingale, she's the reincarnation of Loki's wife, princess of Asgard and Alfheim."

"Well," The teleporter chuckled quietly. "I knew, from the moment I met her, little thing hanging onto our own princess like their lives depended on it… I knew she was special, just as special as our Daisy… the Elders of old would have seen her as less, for not being one of us, and that would have been a mistake. A huge mistake indeed."

Coulson nodded. He didn't understand, obviously, where Gordon and the other Inhumans came from, everything they'd been through over the past twenty five years… but he empathized with them, with the feeling of losing a home, a safe harbor. When he began doubting the system, SHIELD, he felt lost, and when he realized he couldn't trust John Garret and Nick, two of his oldest friends… if it hadn't been for Darcy and his team he wouldn't have known what to do. But he had had them, they'd been his saving grace. He hoped the Academy would be the same for the Inhumans. That they might be able to give them a new home; it'd not take the place of the one they had lost, just like Daisy couldn't possibly be her mother; but it was good enough for a new beginning, a good beginning.

After introductions, a tour and making sure the group was settled (and things were ready to begin receiving all who would be arriving in the following weeks), they gathered in the biggest common room for a little party. Quite tame by Stark's standards, but that suited them all just fine. Skye was beginning to get twitchy with all the people referring to her as 'my queen', 'my lady' and 'your majesty'… Grant just chuckled behind his hand most of the time… until they began calling him by similar titles; after all, he was their queen's husband. Then it was Skye's turn to laugh. She also got rid of some tension by reminding Aria she would be getting at least some of the same once she got to Asgard (it was the only thing related to the upcoming departure that could make the girls laugh).

Truth was that as much as they loved each other and wanted to always be together… they also understood that wasn't possible, they had responsibilities that couldn't be ignored. Also, neither of them needed Andrew (May's ex (or not so ex anymore)) husband and the Academy's brand new psychologist) to tell them they had codependency issues. They'd had them from the start. At first it had been a sort of safety blanket, being together when moving from group home to foster home and back, the people at St. Agnes had been the ones to made things be like that, and it was good for them, for it gave them someone they could depend on, someone they could trust to be with them even when it seemed like no one else wanted them. It was also the start of their issues. Then there was the Kraken and his minions, the awful lab… while there, being separated had been a punishment; it had also signaled that something bad was going to happen. Since getting out the longest they'd been apart was when Aria had taken that trip, right before Skye was taken by SHIELD (and that really hadn't helped matters any), she still had returned early. The team had grown used to them being together, and the two times they'd split… once had been in Malta, though that one hadn't been so bad, then the second had been in Italy, and that one had been beyond bad…

After the whole SHIELD/Hydra debacle they'd begun trying. Taking small missions, spending time apart (mostly for Skye's and Grant's dates). It wasn't easy, they were forced to take it slow, so as not to traumatize themselves too much. But at least that made it so once Nightingale's departure became imminent they weren't terrified out of their minds at the prospect of being apart (like they'd have been just six months earlier).

Also, it wasn't like they'd be apart forever. Loki and Thor were still Avengers, and Nightingale was still a Sentinel; they'd be returning, would be staying on Earth for the most part, for a long time yet. So it wasn't like it was 'goodbye forever'.

The night was beginning to wind down when a small group of children approached the sisters, they were the children of some of the orphans Gordon had saved from the fall of Afterlife, and the youngest members of the group). They bowed at their 'Queen' like they'd seen their parents do (two of them giggling quietly to themselves), before turning their eyes to Aria. There were some doubts, as they looked among themselves, before the eldest girl spoke up:

"Is it true you can sing real pretty?" Once the girl got the courage to talk she began almost babbling. "Mama says Gordon told her you can sing, and we really want to hear you sing for us. Please? Pretty please?"

Skye laughed at that, and the way her sister couldn't help but react to the girl's puppy eyes. She didn't even care about Aria giving her the 'stink eye', they both knew there was only one way things could go after that.

"Of course I'll sing for you." The hazel-eyed told the girl with a beatific smile.

"Yay!" The children ran back to their parents, delighted.

It took but one second for FRIDAY (the AI Stark had woven into the Academy to help them… after having her help him recover JARVIS, of course) to turn off the music. When everyone realized what was coming it took no time for the room to be completely quiet.

Aria turned to look at her sister then, signing two single words, she knew Skye would understand:

+For you...+

There was no music, and no need for it. Singing was in Nightingale's soul and had always been:

"It started out as a feeling

Which then grew into a hope

Which then turned into a quiet thought

Which then turned into a quiet word

And then that word grew louder and louder

'Til it was a battle cry

I'll come back when you call me

No need to say goodbye"

"Just because everything's changing

Doesn't mean it's never been this way before

All you can do is try to know who your friends are

As you head off to the war

Pick a star on the dark horizon and follow the light

You'll come back when it's over

No need to say goodbye

You'll come back when it's over

No need to say goodbye"

"Now we're back to the beginning

It's just a feeling and no one knows yet

But just because they can't feel it too

Doesn't mean that you have to forget

Let your memories grow stronger and stronger

'Til they're before your eyes

You'll come back when they call you

No need to say goodbye

You'll come back when they call you

No need to say goodbye"

 **xXx**

The next day, at the end of the day, Grant found Skye standing on the rooftop of the main (and tallest) building in the property, watching the sunset. Thor, Loki and Nightingale (Skye would always call her Aria) had left earlier that day, and they'd spent the rest of the day getting a few more things ready, and receiving the first inhumans to arrive on their own.

"Skye…?" He called softly, not wanting to crowd her if she'd rather be alone.

Skye just waved at him to approach, nestling back into his chest, his arms, when he got close enough. He smiled at that, nothing ever made him happier than having his dear Skye, his wife (and at times he could hardly believe he was so lucky to have her) in his arms.

"When you see the horizon, what do you think?" She asked, seemingly out of nowhere.

"Well," Grant had no idea what the point of the question was, but he answered nonetheless. "It's the line that divides the earth from the sky, right?"

"Is it?" Skye asked softly.

"What are you getting to?" He wanted to know.

"When we were young, Aria would always ask, not just me, but everyone around us, whether we saw the horizon as a divide, as a point of separation… or as a union, as the point where the earth and the sky meet and unite." Skye explained.

"Is this like that psych game with the half-filled glass and asking whether you see it as half-full or half-empty?" Grant didn't like that kind of stuff.

"Not really… Maybe?" Skye hesitated as she considered it. "I'm not sure. Never saw it that way. At first it seemed to me just like a funny question. Then later on, when I thought better about it, I saw it as a representation of us. Like I'm the Earth and Arya's the Sky… or even the other way around, that part doesn't matter. What matters is that, if you look at things objectively, at what we are, where we come from… the two of us should have never met."

"But you met." Grant was beginning to see where it was going.

"We met, and we became sisters." Skye nodded. "There's a horizon between us… but I don't think it separates us really, I think it unites us."

"I think it unites us all." Grant offered.

Skye knew Grant got it. He'd been there after all, part of something yet not quite fitting in, until their team. It was exactly the same, they were all united by different horizons... and it was perfect.

* * *

For those interested in more details regarding the fourth and final part of the Nightingale series. Where it concerns the main timeline, like I've said before, there will be either two or four fics; I'm not sure yet because I'm trying to make up my mind whether I should write something for Wonder Woman in this verse (it'd be the newest movie; though the story for the rest of the JL is still my modified version of Smallville, which I gave you in "Bouquet of Roses". I'm also on the fence regarding a possible epilogue, outside of the main fics.

The main stories though will be "Finite Harmony" and "Infinite Starlight"; the first which will handle what events of Civil War, Guardians of the Galaxy, the later seasons of AoS, etc. I'm keeping; it will also serve as a prelude for my version of the Infinity War, which will be "Infinite Starlight". A warning though, don't expect realm-sized epic battles; I'm strictly against those because if it gets to the point where the battle is taking place in the planet, where it ends up half destroyed... then, as far as I'm concerned, they've already lost. So no, I'm telling you right now, that's not happening. Still, I hope you'll like what I will be doing; there will be battles, just not the traditionally epic ones. Also, a lot of world-building, and mixing up things; some might have noticed that with my mixing fandoms and mythologies I've been building up to something; you will finally see what I've been leading up to. Again, hope you'll like it.

So, that's that for now! See you all in four months, more or less!


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